A “kind, enlightened” health researcher and lecturer who was stabbed to death outside his own home had recently become a father for the first time, it has emerged.
Dr Jeroen Ensink’s wife gave birth early last month. Dr Ensink, 41, who had worked to improve health and sanitation in Pakistan, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, was found in the street in Holloway, north London, on the afternoon of 29 December.
Sophie Trémolet, a water and sanitation economist who worked with Dr Ensink and lived near him, said she was “devastated” to hear of the death of “such a kind, enlightened man”.
She told The Independent: “Every time I met with him or worked with him, he always struck me as extremely kind and generous, a very safe pair of hands when it came to delivering the work in all corners of the globe.
“The last time I saw him, in late November, he and his wife were awaiting with great anticipation the birth of their first child, who was born in early December. Even though they are both from the Netherlands, they were very much looking forward to building their shared future here.”
Dr Ensink, a senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, was leading a study in the Democratic Republic of Congo into improving water supply to prevent cholera.
Professor Peter Piot, director of the school, said: “Jeroen was passionately committed to a simple cause: improving access to water and sanitation in countries where children die needlessly due to the lack of these basic services.
“He was a natural educator and immensely popular with students, in whom he invested much time and energy. The legacy of his work will continue in Asia and Africa.”
Timchang Nandap, 22, from Woolwich, south-east London, has been charged with Dr Ensink’s murder.
