A notorious landlord who once hired a hitman to kill his business partner walked free from court today after he was found not guilty over an accusation he called a police officer was a ‘poofter’.
Nicholas Adolf von Hessen, who was formerly called Nicholas van Hoogstraten, made the comment after his son was arrested following a row over clamping at a car park he owns in Hove, East Sussex on August 19 last year.
The 75-year-old was cleared by magistrates of behaviour causing harassment alarm or distress.
Mr von Hessen called the proceedings ‘laughable, a complete waste of public money and a disgrace’.
Aged 22, Mr von Hessen was convicted of throwing a grenade into Rabbi Bernard Braunstein’s Brighton home and was sentenced to four years, with another four years added following an appeal.
In 1999, one of his business partners Mohammed Raja was killed by two thugs Mr von Hessen had hired. He was convicted of manslaughter in 2002 and sentenced to ten years.
Nicholas Adolf von Hessenis pictured above outside Brighton and Hove Magistrates’ Court today
The conviction was later quashed and he was acquitted at a retrial and freed from prison, having spent a year behind bars.
During his trial today at Brighton Magistrates Court, Mr von Hessen accused court staff and prosecutors of lying.
He claimed the words he used were ‘maybe he’s a poofter as well’. He added: ‘And since when (is) poof or poofter in any way offensive?’
Returning the verdict, magistrate Barbara Dart said: ‘We watched the video evidence, we heard Mr von Hessen say ‘maybe he’s a poofter as well’.
During his trial today at Brighton Magistrates Court (above), Mr von Hessen accused court staff and prosecutors of lying
Aged 22, Mr von Hessen was convicted of throwing a grenade into Rabbi Bernard Braunstein’s Brighton home and was sentenced to four years, with another four years added following an appeal. Pictured: Mr von Hessen in 1968
Who is Nicholas Adolf von Hessen?
Nicholas Adolf von Hessen, who previously went by the name of Nicholas von Hoogstraten was born in Shoreham in 1945 and by the late sixties he owned 350 properties around Sussex and called himself the UK’s youngest millionaire.
He built his empire with the help of a loan sharking business and was well known for threatening tenants to move out.
Aged 22, he was convicted of throwing a grenade into Rabbi Bernard Braunstein’s Brighton home and was sentenced to four years, with another four years added following an appeal.
Nicholas Adolf von Hessen outside Brighton and Hove court today
The rabbi’s wife Sylvia Braunstein told the court Hoogstraten said: ‘I’m a Fascist, and a Nazi, didn’t you know that? If I wanted I could pay £50 to men in London to get every Jew in Brighton bumped off.’
In the 80s, van Hoogstraten began constructing mega-mansion Hamilton Palace on the former site of High Cross House nursing home near Uckfield, East Sussex.
Between 1985 and 2006, the work on the property – which is larger than Buckingham Palace – cost £40 million.
In 1999, one of his business partners Mohammed Raja was killed by two thugs Hoogstraten had hired.
In the 80s, van Hoogstraten began constructing mega-mansion Hamilton Palace (pictured) on the former site of High Cross House nursing home
He was convicted of manslaughter in 2002 and sentenced to ten years, but this conviction was quashed and he was acquitted at a retrial and freed from prison, having spent a year behind bars.
However, in 2005, Raja’s family successfully sued Hoogstraten and were awarded £6 million by Mr Justice Lightman, who found on the balance of probabilities ‘the recruitment of the two thugs was for the purpose of murdering Mr Raja and not merely frightening or hurting him.’
He subsequently vowed the family would not receive a penny, and put all his UK property into his children’s names, including the Courtlands Hotel in Hove.
He then moved to Zimbabwe where he became a close associate of its dictator president Robert Mugabe.
‘This was said quietly and directed towards his son. Mr von Hessen was not confrontational.’
She accepted the words are ‘unpleasant and rude’ but the magistrates did not think it passed the criminal standard in this case.
He denied using any foul language, saying: ‘I’m not a person who swears even at the worst of times, never have done.’
He then reeled off a string of offensive terms for gay people he had used ‘back in the day’, adding: ‘It was said very quietly. The two police officers standing there didn’t even flinch, they didn’t take the slightest notice of it.’
During the bodycam footage of the incident on 19 August last year, Mr von Hessen’s son is heard taunting PC Breeds, calling him ‘Mad Max’ and saying: ‘People don’t like talking to you even your own officers don’t like talking to you, you can tell you’re not Mr Popular in the office…right now you have got your hand on me.’
Prosecuting, Melanie Wotton said: ‘A gentleman complained that he had been clamped illegally.
‘There was some dispute between parties about the reasons for that clamping. Initially it was thought it was a civil dispute and then it transpired it was a criminal matter and as a result police officers attended.
‘At some point during the interaction it became necessary to arrest the son… a number of other people turned up including Mr von Hessen.
‘He spoke with police officers and PCSOs and during the course of the interaction with PC Breeds and his son, while PC Breeds stood there quietly, it appears that the son took objection to that officer.
‘During that time Mr von Hessen comes over while his son is talking about PC Breeds having hands on him and at that point Mr von Hessen says he’s a poof.’
PC Breeds told the court: ‘I initially thought he might be a member of the public who had a misconception about the police and how we were handling this.
‘I became aware from comments from Mr von Hessen that it was his son I had in handcuffs.
‘He was also confrontational and saying various things, some obstructive, but he had been distanced from me so I wasn’t concerned. Colleagues came to distance him from me.’
He added: ‘The son said something like I was scared or worried, some derogatory comment, to which his father then says he’s a poof. That was directed at me, quite clearly.
‘It’s undermining, it’s aggressive, it’s something you shouldn’t have to hear. It served no purpose, it wasn’t constructive, it just had no bearing on anything.
‘The intention was to cause me to fear him or back down in the situation.’
Mr von Hessen walked free from court and was found not guilty of behaviour causing harassment alarm or distress.
In the 80s, van Hoogstraten began constructing mega-mansion Hamilton Palace on the former site of High Cross House nursing home near Uckfield, East Sussex.
Between 1985 and 2006, the work on the property – which is larger than Buckingham Palace – cost £40 million.
In the 80s, Mr von Hessen began constructing mega-mansion Hamilton Palace on the former site of High Cross House nursing home
Mr von Hessen began the construction of Hamilton Palace in the 1980s, and since then has amassed interests across the world