South Yorkshire TV 'Egghead' won't be extradited over killing claim

The Dutch bid to extradite former Eggheads panelist CJ de Mooi (seen here starring on Pointless Celebrities) was today dismissed by a UK court.

Real name Joseph Connagh, he was sensationally arrested on arrival at Heathrow Airport under European arrest warrant for an alleged death more than 20 years ago.

ARREST FLASHBACK: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/south-yorkshire-egghead-arrested-for-murder-1-8141264

Netherlands police launched a probe into the 46-year-old, born in South Yorkshire, after the BBC quiz show regular claimed in his book he may have killed a knife-wielding mugger while living rough as an Amsterdam rent boy in the late 1980s.

He wrote: "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".

The one-time model became wanted in Holland for questioning over accusations of manslaughter, murder, assault and assault by battery.

But his extradition there has now been dismissed at Westminster Magistrates' Court, where Judge Khalid Quershi described the case as "dodgy" due to lack of a domestic warrant from Dutch authorities who made no decision to charge him.

Ordering £5,000 security for bail be returned to the TV star, the judge stressed there is nothing to prevent Dutch authorities from reissuing the arrest warrant.

De Mooi was suspended by Beeb bosses in January after being accused of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old man during a Glasgow night out, leaving the corporation on the same day he learned those claims had been dropped.

He announced in May he would leave his Welsh home to pursue a South African acting career.