I dread the day my girl asks why she doesn’t have a dad
DR Jeroen Ensink’s heartbroken wife Nadja Ensink-Teich brought their nine-month-old daughter Fleur to the Old Bailey yesterday to see justice done. In a heart-rending statement, she said:
‘I’m here to show how a single mindless act affected us for life. No words can ever describe the loss and pain we’re going through.
‘Jeroen was everyone’s friend, but he was my soulmate.
‘Our daughter was born on December 18 and it was everything Jeroen ever wanted.
‘He was the proudest man ever, but he only got to share her life for 11 days. These were the happiest days of his and my life.
‘Jeroen was stabbed outside our front door in a random attack by a complete stranger. The cards announcing our joy were scattered in the street stained with his blood.
‘On Tuesday, December 29 my world collapsed and stopped turning. I don’t know how I man- aged to go on, and I still don’t know.
‘Almost ten months have passed and our daughter has flourished into the most wonderful human being and she brings so much love and light into my life, but there’s also a massive void that cannot be filled.
‘I’m dreading the day when she asks why she does not have a father and I have to explain what’s happened.
‘Not only was the love of my life taken from me but with him all our hopes and dreams. He never got a real chance to see me be a mother. The life we had started ended before we had a chance to settle into it.
‘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?’