Families demand new probe into deaths at Hoogstraten flat

Relatives of five people killed in a fire at a flat linked to property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten have called for a fresh probe into the blaze following the notorious landlord's conviction for manslaughter.

Last Monday Van Hoogstraten was found guilty of hiring two thugs who shot and stabbed business rival Mohammed Raja after he had accused the multi-millionaire businessman of fraud and was planning to take him to court.

The case has reawoken suspicions that Van Hoogstraten may have been angered by the tenants of a flat in Hove, East Sussex, who had won a court battle to purchase the freehold. Van Hoogstraten initially denied any link to the property but it later emerged that one of his offshore companies held a mortgage on the freehold of the third-floor flat.

The fire broke out in April 1992 as Tim Sharp celebrated his 28th birthday in the flat in Palmeira Avenue. Despite requests by the local council, the building had not been fitted with a fire escape and as flames spread Sharp and four others became trapped. Two died in the blaze and another three leapt to their deaths.

Tim's father, Graham, said: 'I'd like a fresh inquiry because I'm sure a lot of evidence wasn't produced. The only way out at the time of the fire was across the roof and Tim didn't have a chance.'

The inquest into the deaths accepted that a disgruntled guest, Trevor Carrington, had started the blaze. He had told his brother: 'I did it to make them panic. I was drunk'. He later committed suicide. The families of the dead walked out of the inquest in protest at the refusal of the coroner to call Van Hoogstraten. The jury in Brighton announced verdicts of unlawful killing.

But the fire investigator said the blaze was started in three places at once and concluded that more than one person had been involved. Jobless Carrington was later found to have had a large sum of money stashed in a secret overseas bank account. It also emerged that a few days before the blaze a couple living on the top floor of the block were stopped by two men in the street and warned to get out.

Sussex police rejected the call for a fresh investigation, pointing out that they held an
inquiry into the deaths in 1988, but found no new evidence of motive. A spokeswoman said that 'if there is new evidence and other witnesses come forward we would look into it again'.