Jubilant: Jeremiah’s mother Erica
THE High Court has granted the family of a 22-year-old student discovered dead on a German road a fresh inquest into the death.
The decision by two High Court judges follows a seven-year fight led by his mother Erica Duggan from Golders Green to have a new inquiry into the events leading up to the death of her son Jeremiah in March 2003.
German police in the town of Wiesbaden have always maintained that Jeremiah committed suicide by leaping into the path of two cars.
A British inquest in November 2003 concluded only that he had died in a “state of terror”.
But today Lord Justice Elias quashed the previous inquest and ordered a fresh hearing to investigate the possibility that Jeremiah had died as a result of “foul play” and that the student may have been “hunted down”.
The 22-year-old Jewish student had travelled to Germany from his university in Paris for what he thought was an anti-war conference but became entangled with a right-wing political group named LaRouche.
On the night he died Jeremiah telephoned his mother saying he was in deep trouble but the line went dead.
Documents presented to the court outlined evidence suggesting that Jeremiah’s body may have in fact been placed at the scene, with one expert describing the accident as being “stage managed”.
Lord Justice Elias, sitting with Mr Justice Aikenhead, said the evidence submitted to the court also included the suggestion that the injuries on Jeremiah’s body were inconsistent with the damaged sustained by the two cars.
The windscreen of one of the cars appeared to have been “hit with and instrument, possibly a crow bar” he said.
Legal papers presented to the court allege that there may have been “a deliberate attempt to hunt down and kill Jeremiah”.
The judge went on to outline claims that one member of the LaRouche group had confided to his mother that Jeremiah had been hunted down because he was a “traitor and a spy”.
Lord Justice Elias said: “We are satisfied that the fresh evidence could alter the verdict. It raises questions about whether the death resulted from Jeremiah being hit by a car at all.
“It puts in issue whether or not there may have been foul play.”
Following the hearing Mrs Duggan told The Press: “I’m so pleased, when he made his ruling I felt quite faint actually. If we had been refused I would have been devastated after fighting for seven years it’s a wonderful feeling.
“It’s taken a long time but we have got what we wanted.”
Email: nick.griffin@nlhnews.co.uk