Old Bailey: The jury in the Mohammed Raja murder trial retired yesterday to pore over three months of evidence and decide the fate of three men, including millionaire tycoon Nicholas Van Hoogstraten.

In his summing up, Old Bailey judge, Mr Justice Newman, directed the jury not to consider one of the charges conspiracy to murder against the property magnate, because it added nothing to his other count of murder.

Hoogstraten is accused of paying David Croke and Robert Knapp to gun down Mr Raja at his home in Mulgrave Road, Sutton, on July 2, 1999, following a six-year legal battle between the tycoon and the landlord.

But the judge said though Croke and Knapp could go down only for murder, Hoogstraten could be found not guilty of murder but convicted of manslaughter, if he had counselled the others to do the Sutton landlord some harm.

According to Mr Justice Newman: "Before you convict Mr Hoogstraten of manslaughter, you have to be sure the unlawful act as you conclude he did counsel, was such that all reasonable people would recognise must subject the other person to at least the risk of some harm."

For the tycoon to go down for murder, the jury would have to be convinced not only that Croke and Knapp had executed Mr Raja but that the tycoon had encouraged or ordered them to do it.

This made the conspiracy charge unnecessary.

The judge told the jury: "Ignore it. The conspiracy charge was very properly placed and the fact it goes follows the fact that all the evidence has now been heard, and count one adds nothing to count two (murder)."

Mr Justice Newman also told the jury they could draw inferences from Knapp's failure to give evidence during the trial.

Hoogstraten, of High Cross Estate, Framfield, East Sussex, Knapp, 54, of Convent Street, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick and David Croke, 60, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, all deny murder.

July 12, 2002 11:00