CJ De Mooi: Dutch authorities abandon plan to extradite former Eggheads star for questioning

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Dutch authorities have abandoned attempts to extradite CJ De Mooi, the former panellist on the BBC TV quiz show Eggheads, after a London judge ruled the European arrest warrant to question him should never have been issued.

De Mooi, whose birth name is Joseph Connagh, was arrested under a European Arrest Warrant when he arrived at Heathrow airport on 22 September. He was wanted for questioning by authorities in Amsterdam over a claim he made in his autobiography published in September 2015 about “punching a man”, where he wrote: “I fully suspect I killed him”.

In his book, the 46-year-old described it as “the one incident of my life I do regret” and said it took place while he was living rough in Amsterdam three decades ago.

“I was in a phone box and this old guy, obviously a massive drug user, came up behind me with a knife in his hand … he told me to turn around, open my bag and give him whatever was inside … I punched him so hard in the face, knocked the knife out of his hand and threw him in the canal. I fully suspect I killed him. I’ve no idea what happened to him.”

Dutch police began investigating if an alleged crime had taken place after his book was published.

However, Judge Khalid Quereshi told Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London the European arrest warrant should never have been issued because a UK warrant had not been issued, according to the London Evening Standard.

A request by Myles Grandison, acting for De Mooi, for the warrant to be dismissed was granted by the judge, who told De Mooi to cooperate with police if questioning did take place in the UK. Rachael Scott, prosecuting, said British police would still be interested in speaking to him.

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard told The Independent they could not comment at this stage because the alleged offence did not take place in the UK.