A British student who was thought to have killed himself in Germany may have been put under severe psychological pressure by a rightwing cult in the days before he died, an inquest has heard.

Jeremiah Duggan, 22, was found dead on a road near Wiesbaden on 27 March 2003 after he attended a youth event organised by the far-right movement LaRouche.

German police initially said his death was “a suicide by means of a traffic accident”. However, the student’s family, from north London, have never accepted that.

Anthony Metzer QC, representing the family, told the inquest on Thursday that Duggan had been seduced by the French branch of LaRouche, which he initially believed to be a leftwing movement opposed to the Iraq war.

“Jeremiah Duggan was seduced into this organisation on the pretext it was a leftist movement; he was sucked in and revealed himself to the group to be a British Jew … who was then rejected by the movement, who saw him as a spy; as a result action might have been taken.”

The court heard from the former French MP and cult expert Catherine Picard, who told the court that Duggan might have faced intense pressure and psychological violence during the conference, with hours of lectures, one-to-one sessions and more than 30 pages of reading to review every day.

She said: “Jeremiah might have been under the influence or control of the organisation LaRouche which exploited his vulnerability due to geographical isolation in Germany, without members of his family or girlfriend, and played on a potential loss of bearings.

“It should be noted that members of this organisation undergo significant pressure, and part of the psychological pressure is being subjected to repeated conspiracy theories and antisemitic discourse.”

She added: “It’s apparently leftwing, which masks a very extreme rightwing speech.”

Picard was shown notes Duggan made during the conference and said they charted his transformation from able student to someone who was unable to reason for themselves.

“The idea would be to try and confuse completely, like an infantilisation of the person. It’s the feeling somebody who used to have the ability to reason would have felt completely overwhelmed.”

Earlier in the inquest Duggan’s mother Erica told Barnet coroner’s court how she last spoke to her son on the morning he died when he said he was frightened and in “deep, deep trouble”.

The inquest also heard from witnesses who said they saw Duggan try to jump out in front of several cars on the morning of his death. The drivers of the two cars German investigators said were involved in the death said Duggan had been at the side of the road before he threw himself in front of one vehicle and was then run over by the second. The drivers said they believed he had tried to kill himself.

However, a forensic scientist, Alan Bayle, told the inquest there was no evidence to support the claim. “I firmly believe this incident was staged and that Mr Duggan met his death somewhere else and his body [was] dumped on the road,” said Bayle.

He added there were no traces of blood, glass or skin on the two cars supposed to have hit Duggan or anything to suggest he had been struck by the cars. “It did not take me very long to see this was a crime scene and not a traffic accident,” added Bayle.

Bayle, who based his evaluation on photographs of the incident, said there was sand on both cars and Duggan’s shoes, suggesting he had been at a nearby quarry or building site at the same time as the cars.

North London coroner Andrew Walker asked whether it was plausible that the scene had been faked on a busy motorway at 6am without any witnesses. Bayle said it would have required a widespread conspiracy involving “a large number of people”.

The inquest continues.

