The widow of academic Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, who was stabbed to death as he posted cards to friends announcing the birth of his daughter, hopes questions will be answered at his inquest which begins on Monday.

Ensink, from Zwolle in the Netherlands, was a world-renowned water engineer and public health academic at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.



He died on 29 December 2015, 11 days after the birth of his daughter Fleur, after being stabbed yards from his north London home.

Femi Nandap, a student from Nigeria who was suffering a severe psychotic illness, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey and in October 2016 was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order at Broadmoor.

Nandap, who was 23 at the time of the killing, previously had contact with the Metropolitan police after it was reported that he was behaving in a strange manner and in possession of a knife. He had been charged with possession of a bladed article and was reporting regularly for bail between October 2015 and 23 December 2015. Six days before Ensink was killed, the charges against Nandap had been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.



Ensink’s widow, Nadja Ensink-Teich, said: “We miss Jeroen more than words could ever express and are grieving every day. Over two and a half years after his death we hope that we will finally get answers. It is the least our daughter deserves.

“We have been forced to ask our friends and strangers to help us pay for legal representation at this inquest because we were refused legal aid.

Jeroen Ensink with his wife Nadja Ensink-Teich, who is seeking answers over his death from the Met and CPS. Photograph: Nadja Ensink-Teich/PA

“I am hopeful that the coroner will help us get the answers we need and that the Metropolitan police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), whose legal representation will be funded by the public purse, will also want to get to the truth of what happened.”

Senior coroner for inner north London, Mary Hassell, said the Article 2 inquest, due to be held before a jury, would examine not just by what means Ensink died but would also examine in what circumstances.

Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, said: “It is shameful that this family had to fundraise to be legally represented in a process where all the other parties are publicly funded.

“This inequality of arms, where the state have legitimate questions to answer is unacceptable. We hope the inquest will scrutinise the conduct of the Metropolitan police and CPS over this deeply troubling death.”

The Old Bailey had heard that Nandap, who was living in Woolwich, south London, had become mentally unwell and believed he was “the chosen one” or the “black Messiah”. On the day of the killing he was visiting his sister, who lived on the same road in Islington as Ensink, his wife and newborn daughter.



Ensink was highly regarded in his field. He had 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, according to colleagues.

At the time of his death he was working on a large study into improving water supplies in urban areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2015 he participated in a Guardian debate on achieving sustainable development in water and sanitation.