Cleared of abuse, tyrant landlord in gay slur at policeman
BRITAIN’S most notorious landlord, who was once described by a judge as ‘an emissary of Beelzebub’, was acquitted yesterday of abusing a policeman by calling him a ‘poofter’.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten, 75, walked free from court after threatening to call his ‘personal friend’ – the former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox – to complain about his latest prosecution.
The property tycoon was represented by Mr Cox at the Court of Appeal in 2003, when he successfully argued that his conviction for killing a business associate should be quashed. Yesterday Mr van
‘A complete waste of public money’
Hoogstraten – who has changed his name to Nicholas Adolf von Hessen – attacked the criminal justice system after being hauled to court for allegedly harassing a policeman by calling him a ‘poofter’.
In an extraordinary court hearing, the defendant admitted making the comment to PC James Breeds. But magistrates deemed that his use of the phrase was not actually a crime and did not meet the threshold for the offence of behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress.
Mr van Hoogstraten told Brighton magistrates he had used a string of offensive terms for gay people ‘ back in the day’ but he asked: ‘ Since when is “poof” or “poofter” in any way offensive?’
Police were called on August 19 last year after a man complained that his car had been illegally clamped at Mr van Hoogstraten’s car park in Hove, East Sussex, and a group of men were threatening to hit him if he did not pay.
When PC Breeds arrested the tycoon’s son, his father intervened. Prosecutor Melanie Wotton said: ‘His son is shouting and at that point Mr von Hessen says “he’s a poof” to PC Breeds.
‘No other swear words were used but in my submission no other swear words have to be used. It is a derogatory and abusive term.’
Police bodycam footage was played to the court showing the tycoon’s son taunting PC Breeds, and calling him ‘Mad Max’. Mr van Hoogstraten added: ‘Maybe he’s a poofter as well.’ Yesterday the businessman ranted at court staff, and said of the case: ‘It’s a complete waste of public money...’
In an earlier hearing, the businessman threatened to ring Mr Cox, ranting: ‘A personal friend of mine is the Attorney General and he will want to know what is going on in these courts.’
He went on: ‘It was my son who was sexually assaulted by this officer, who happened to be a poofter. I made a comment about it, him being a poofter, and I’m the one who’s arrested.’ Yesterday PC Breeds told the court that the remark was meant to intimidate him, adding: ‘It’s undermining, it’s aggressive, it’s something you shouldn’t have to hear.’ But magistrates decided that the remark did not met the criminal threshold.
It is not the first time that Mr van Hoogstraten has walked free from court. The businessman accrued vast wealth as a slum landlord and his fortune was once estimated at £500million.
But he became notorious for court cases featuring allegations of gangland attacks carried out on his orders. At 22, he was convicted of throwing a grenade into a rabbi’s home and was sentenced to four years. At the trial the judge called him a ‘sort of self-imagined devil who thinks he’s an emissary of Beelzebub’. In 2002 Mr van
Hoogstraten was sentenced to ten years in jail for hiring a hitman to kill property developer Mohammed Sabir Raja in 1999. The manslaughter conviction was overturned, but in 2005 a High Court civil judge ruled that Mr van Hoogstraten was responsible for recruiting the hitman after Mr Raja’s family sued him for £6million.
He refused to pay and moved to Zimbabwe where he became a close associate of its dictator president Robert Mugabe.
Yesterday the tycoon said outside court: ‘I’m pleased to see that there’s still a semblance of British justice. It shouldn’t have got off the ground in the first place.’