The Faculty of Law acknowledges with great sorrow the deaths of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt. Saskia and Jack died near London Bridge on Friday 29 November while taking part in an event organised by the Institute of Criminology as part of its Learning Together programme. Writing about the events of 29 November, Professor Stephen J Toope, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, describes the London Bridge attack as an 'abhorrent and senseless act'. The Faculty wholeheartedly endorses that view.
Saskia completed her MPhil in Criminology at Cambridge in 2018 and subsequently remained in contact with the Institute’s Learning Together community. In a message posted on its website, the Institute’s Director, Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, writes of Saskia’s 'warm disposition and extraordinary intellectual creativity', which were ‘combined with a strong belief that people who have committed criminal offences should have opportunities for rehabilitation’. Jack completed his MPhil in Criminology in 2017, thereafter remaining at the Institute as a staff member working in the Learning Together team. Professor Gelsthorpe writes that Jack will be remembered for his ‘quiet humour and rigorous intellect’, for his ‘determined belief in rehabilitation’, and for his infectious passion for social and criminal justice.
The Faculty of Law stands with the University in condemning the abhorrent attack that resulted in the deaths of Jack and Saskia, and which injured others, and offers its deepest condolences to all who are affected by this event.