Eggheads panellist CJ De Mooi arrested for an alleged killing 20 years ago

Quiz show panellist CJ De Mooi was arrested at Heathrow for an alleged killing in the Netherlands and will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday

A former panellist on the BBC2 quiz show Eggheads has been arrested under a European arrest warrant for an alleged killing more than 20 years ago.

CJ de Mooi was detained under his real name Joseph Connagh at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, Scotland Yard said.

He is wanted over an alleged killing in the Netherlands and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

De Mooi, who lives in Monmouthshire, revealed in his autobiography that he may have killed a man while he lived on the streets two decades ago.

The 46-year-old said he punched a man who approached him with a knife and then threw him into a canal in Amsterdam in 1988.

Westminster Magistrates court(Dominic Lipinski/PA) — (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

He wrote in his autobiography: “He caught me on the wrong day and I just snapped.”

He added: “I fully suspect I killed him. I’ve no idea what happened to him.”

De Mooi also described how he became a prostitute in London and then Amsterdam when he found himself homeless and penniless in his late teens.

He became a panellist on the BBC2 show, which features five quiz champions competing as a team against different challengers, in 2003 after winning a series of game shows.

He adopted the name de Mooi when modelling, and he translates it as Dutch for 'handsome'.

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