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Monday 10 October 2016

Nigerian Student Femi Nandap Admits Killing Academic In Islington Doorstep Stabbing In UK

Image result for Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, was stabbed to death by Femi Nandap
A Nigerian man Femi Nandap with a mental illness stabbed an academic to death in a random attack five days after three serious charges against him, including a knife offence, had been dropped, it has emerged.

Timchang Nandap, 23, attacked Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, as Ensink went out to post cards to family and friends announcing the birth of his daughter, Fleur.

Ensink, a lecturer and water engineer originally from the Netherlands, who worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was yards from his Islington home in north London when he was attacked on 29 December.


 Image result for Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, was stabbed to death by Femi Nandap
Nandap, who uses the first name Femi, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in a brief appearance at the Old Bailey via videolink from Broadmoor high-security hospital on Thursday.

It can now be reported that at an earlier hearing the judge Charles Wide, now retired, said there would be “public concern” over the decision to drop the previous charges. “I have no idea what the circumstances were. I can see there may be some public concern about that,” Wide said.

The charges related to an incident in May last year when Nandap was seen in Primrose Gardens, north west London, with a 30 inch kitchen knife and punched and bit an officer who was trying to arrest him.

While on conditional bail he went to Nigeria where he was treated for mental illness but he stopped taking anti-psychotic drugs by his return to the UK in October.
Image result for Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, was stabbed to death by Femi Nandap

On August 25, his sister had handed a letter to police explaining he was not fit to travel back to the UK earlier because he was suffering 'depression and psychosis'.
Mrs Ensink-Teich went to the Old Bailey with her baby daughter to see Nandap sentenced for killing her 'soul mate'.
Reading her victim impact statement in court, she said the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband were not a 'one off'.
She said: 'This is a terrible tragedy for me and for Jeroen's daughter, and family and friends but it is not a one off; mental health homicides keep happening again and again.

'If such tragedies keep occurring, why has there not been concerted action to address this?
'If a person with a history of mental health problems is found wandering about with a knife, and attacks a police officer, then that person must be referred to a secure unit for proper assessment and treatment and not given bail so easily.
Image result for Dr Jeroen Ensink, 41, was stabbed to death by Femi Nandap

'This represents a failure of the health and judicial system that should protect the public and care for those with severe mental illness.'
An inquiry should look into how Nandap was granted bail after being charged with assaulting an officer and wielding knifes in public and why he was free on the day of the killing, she told the court.


Nandap, of Woolwich, south-east London, had also breached his earlier bail conditions by not returning from a trip to Nigeria on the agreed date, and the judge questioned why he was not prosecuted for that. He said: “There may be serious public concern for this: the bail [offence] as well as the discontinued offences.”

The charges against Nandap were dropped at a magistrates court on Christmas Eve last year. Court records show Nandap was at Highbury Corner magistrates court on 12 October 2015 accused of possession of a knife and assaulting a police officer. It was alleged he was found carrying two kitchen knives in Edmonton, north London, on 22 May 2015, and that he assaulted a police constable the same day.
Flowers placed outside Dr Ensink’s home


Ensink’s daughter was born 11 days before the December attack, and Ensink’s wife, Nadja, was at home with the newborn girl awaiting his return from posting the cards. When he failed to arrive, she went outside to find police had cordoned off the street and the cards her husband had been carrying were strewn on the pavement spattered with blood. Ensink was pronounced dead at the scene.

Accepting Nandap’s guilty plea to manslaughter, the prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: “There has been extensive psychiatric consideration in this case and the consensus of opinion is clear, cogent and unanimous. In that clear and unanimous psychiatric opinion there was an abnormality of mental function at that time that diminished his responsibility.”

The decision not to pursue the murder charge, he said, was taken in communication with Ensink’s family, who were not present for the hearing.

The recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard QC, adjourned the case until 10 October for sentencing.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a tragic case and our sympathies are with Mr Ensink’s family. The case against Timchang Nandap was discontinued on 23 December following a review that determined there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

“Even if the case had proceeded, the bail conditions he was subject to until his scheduled trial would not have prevented him being at the location of the incident on 29 December 2015.”

The prosecutor in court at a hearing on 12 October at Highbury Corner magistrates court objected to court bail after Nandap failed to surrender to police bail. However, bail was granted by the court following representations from the defence.

Ensink was a renowned water engineer and dedicated humanitarian who was committed to improving access to water and sanitation in deprived areas.

At the time of the killing, Prof Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “Dr Ensink joined the school almost a decade ago and at the time of his death he was leading a large study in the Democratic Republic of Congo to understand how improvements in water supply could control and prevent cholera outbreaks.” A memorial fund set up after his killing has raised more than £20,000.

DCI Jamie Piscopo, of the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, said: “Dr Jeroen Ensink left his home that lunchtime to post a number of cards to friends and family to inform them of the recent birth of his daughter. What should have been the happiest time of Jeroen’s life was ended by the violent and unprovoked actions of Nandap.

“Jeroen had only walked a short distance when he was approached by Nandap, who launched into a vicious attack with a knife. He did not stand a chance, and now, sadly, his daughter will grow up without her father in her life.”

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