‘Our beautiful, talented boy died doing what he loved’

The devastated parents of the other former Cambridge student murdered by Usman Khan paid tribute yesterday to their ‘beautiful, talented boy’ who died ‘doing what he loved’.

Jack Merritt, a 25-year-old criminologist, ‘lit up’ the lives of those around him with his passionate belief in redemption and rehabilitation, his distraught mother Anne and father David said.

In the cruellest of ironies, it was his determination to help others that cost him his life when he was targeted by a convicted terrorist he was helping to rehabilitate.

Mr Merritt, who had a master’s degree from Cambridge University, had been working as a course co-ordinator at the university’s Learning Together programme alongside Khan, who had a ‘great deal’ of involvement with the initiative, according to its annual report.

Friends said Mr Merritt’s girlfriend, Leanne O’Brien, a veterinary science student, was ‘beside herself’ over his death.

his family released a statement saying: ‘Jack Merritt, our beautiful, talented boy, died doing what he loved, surrounded by people he loved and who loved him.

‘he lit up our lives and the lives of his many friends and colleagues, and we will miss him terribly. Jack lived his principles; he believed in redemption and rehabilitation, not revenge, and he always took the side of the underdog.

‘Jack was an intelligent, thoughtful and empathetic person who was looking forward to building a future with his girlfriend, Leanne, and making a career helping people in the criminal justice system.’

his father wrote on Twitter: ‘My son, Jack, would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily. RIP Jack: you were a beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog.

‘Cambridge lost a proud son and a champion for underdogs everywhere, but especially those dealt a losing hand by life, who ended up in the prison system.’

Jack is said to have loved his job as the course co-ordinator of the Cambridge criminology department initiative, in which students in universities and prisons ‘learn degree-level material alongside one another in the prison environment’.

Yesterday his family said: ‘We know Jack would not want this terrible, isolated incident to be used as a pretext by the Government for introducing even more draconian sentences on prisoners, or for detaining people in prison for longer than necessary.

Our thoughts go out to the relatives and friends of his friend and colleague who died with him in this incident, to the colleagues who were injured, and to his brilliant, supportive colleagues.’

Before studying law at Manchester University, Mr Merritt attended schools in Cambridge, where he lived with his parents and younger brother Joe.

From Manchester, he returned to his home city, completing a master’s degree in philosophy.

Mr Merritt shared details of his work with prisoners on Twitter.

In September last year, he wrote of the ‘exciting news’ that he was ‘welcoming students with criminal convictions to study undergraduate certificates… to improve inclusivity in our university’.

‘He always took the side of the underdog’