Exclusive: Nadja Ensink-Teich says death of her husband, Jeroen Ensink, on his Islington doorstep could have been prevented as killer is sentenced

Eleven days after becoming a father, Jeroen Ensink stepped out of his London flat to post cards to friends, proudly announcing the birth of his daughter, Fleur. “He left at 1.45pm. He was dead at 1.50pm,” said his widow, Nadja Ensink-Teich, 37. “And from that moment, my life stopped.”

Ensink, 41, an internationally renowned water engineer and academic, was killed on his Islington doorstep in a random attack by a stranger, Timchang Nandap, who was known to police and had a mental illness.

On Monday, Nandap was given an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of suffering a mental abnormality. The 23-year-old student stabbed Ensink repeatedly in the chest and back until an off-duty special constable intervened.

Nandap, who was suffering psychosis at the time of the killing, had been arrested seven months previously for allegedly possessing a knife and assaulting a police officer. Those charges were dropped six days before Ensink, an acclaimed researcher and senior lecturer in public health engineering at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was killed.

Ensink-Teich, who was in court for the sentencing, is now calling for a full independent investigation into the circumstances that led to her husband’s death, believing the tragedy highlights failures in the health and judicial system.

“How could this even happen? That is my biggest question,” she told the Guardian. “Knowing that it might have been prevented is a hard fact to live with.” Speaking publicly for the first time, she added: “Knowing those charges were dropped six days before. That is very hard. That is unbearable.”

When he was killed, Ensink, who had travelled the world to improve clean water access and basic sanitation in sub-Saharan African and Asian communities, was moments from their front door. Ensink-Teich, an events manager, was inside, caring for their newborn.

She knew nothing of what happened outside as she could not see the street from the flat. At 2pm, a friend who was due to visit called to say the road was cordoned off. Wondering where her husband was and believing him to have been caught up by the cordon, she went down with Fleur to ask police if she could look for him. She remembers noticing a tent just to the left.



Officers asked for a description of her husband. “Tall and good looking,” she replied. “I felt silly the moment I said that.” The officers told her she should return to her flat and that they would keep her updated.

She recalled: “Not long afterwards, there was a knock at the door. And there were three police officers. And I just knew. It is like the floor opens, and you just fall and fall and fall. I knew the instant I opened the door. I didn’t know exactly what, but I knew it was the worst thing ever.”

Now, almost 10 months since Ensink’s death, the flat is sold because she could not stop looking at the spot where he died, and Ensink-Teich has moved back to the Netherlands, where both were originally from, to live with her parents.



Referring to a photograph showing the couple on holiday last year on a deserted beach in the Netherlands, she said: “I was five months pregnant. And I think we both look so happy, and at ease. We were happy with what our life was. We were looking forward to what was to come.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Femi Nandap. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

In a victim impact statement read to the court on Monday, she spelled out her personal loss. She said: “I miss the life that I was supposed to have. I miss the anniversaries that I will never have with him. I miss the children we will never have. I miss the inside jokes. I miss hearing about his day at work. I miss the twinkle of his eyes. I miss his touch and the sound of his voice when he’d tell me he loved me.”

The Old Bailey heard that Nandap, a Nigerian-born student who lived in Woolwich, south London, had heard voices urging him to “sacrifice” a man. Nandap, who also uses the name Femi, believed he was “the chosen one” or the “black Messiah”.

On the day of the killing, he was visiting his sister, who lived in the same road as Ensink and his family. Ensink was chased around a car by Nandap before stumbling and falling to the ground. He was heard shouting for help while Nandap knifed him repeatedly.

The attack only stopped when an off-duty special constable intervened. As she administered CPR, Nandap shouted: “Leave him, he’s dead.” He tried to clean the knife before entering his sister’s house.

Described as an intelligent young man who did well at school, Nandap became mentally unwell while studying accountancy in Boston, US, in 2012, where he started to use cannabis heavily. Nandap told psychiatrists after the killing: “That morning a new voice came … it was a very scary male asking me to kill someone … telling me that I was the Messiah. I was told it was some form of sacrifice, it was part of my job.”

Ensink, originally from the city of Zwolle, lived and worked in countries including Pakistan, India, Tanzania and Malawi, driven by what he saw as a fundamental injustice that people lacked access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

At the time of his death he was working on a large study into improving water supplies in urban areas in Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 400 people, travelling from more than 40 countries, attended a memorial service in London in February, which Ensink-Teich organised with meticulous attention to detail.

Oliver Cumming, assistant professor at London School of Health and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), a close friend and professional colleague, said Ensink had a rare quality. “There are few people who manage to build up credibility and to be influential in so many parts of the world. What was so impressive about Jeroen was that in all the places he worked, in a very modest fashion, he built a very strong reputation on the quality of his work and the integrity of his character.”



An obituary in the Lancet said: “Indirectly, his death is also a loss to a large proportion of the world’s poor.” Last year, Ensink participated in a Guardian debate on achieving sustainable development in water and sanitation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nadja Ensink-Teich with her husband, Jeroen Ensink. Photograph: Nadja Ensink/PA

The Jeroen Ensink Memorial Fund, set up to support MSc scholarships to the LSHTM for students from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to become future leaders in public health, has so far reached £80,000.



It is a fantastic way to carry on his legacy, said Ensink-Teich, who has been supported by the Hundred Families charity, helping people whose loved ones were killed by people with mental illness.

After the sentencing, the CPS said earlier charges against Nandap had been dropped due to insufficient evidence. A spokesman said: “Even if the case had proceeded, the bail conditions he was subject to until his trial would not have prevented him being at the location of the attack on Ensink on 29 December.”

Ensink-Teich is determined to avoid negative thoughts about her husband’s killer. “I know that if I am holding hate, anger, resentment, bitterness in me, I can’t be the mother I want to be. If I am holding those negative thoughts, I am not harming him. I am harming myself and my daughter.”

She added: “He has taken Jeroen’s life. He is not taking our lives. He is not going to stop me being the mother I always wanted to be.

“I believe in the goodness of the world. I don’t know how, but I still do. And I want to show the beauty of the world to my daughter.”