Hoogstraten: The fiance

Then, taking off his slipper, he hammered it into her face again and again. When it broke, he used a shoe.

"You bitch - I'll teach you to stay out all night," he screamed as she cowered on the bed.

When he had left, Tanaka Sali threw what few things she had into a bag and fled from the hotel.

Within an hour she was in a police station and soon Hoogstraten, already charged with the murder of Mohammed Raja, was arrested for breaking the conditions of his bail. It was the last time he tasted freedom.

That morning in late March last year was the last time Tanaka saw Hoogstraten and she prays their paths never cross again.

Just two-and-a-half years earlier, the multi-millionaire had charmed the naive 16-year-old in her native Zimbabwe.

She said: "He saw me in a night club in Harare and I got invited to his house for a dinner party. I sat next to him at the head of the table and he seemed really interested in me.

"I was attracted to him because he was quite charming and he seemed like a gentleman but I knew nothing about his reputation.

"When we started going out a couple of weeks later, he gave me lots of presents."

Despite the 38-year age gap, the couple became inseparable. When Hoogstraten was away in England he bombarded her with letters.

To her friends, Tanaka seemed to have hit the jackpot. She had met an attractive older man who was one of Zimbabwe's largest landowners.

Tanaka said Hoogstraten was only her second lover but the first time they made love it did not live up to her romantic expectations.

The 19-year-old said: "When he took me to England for the first time, he was getting really sexually frustrated because I had not slept with him because it was still early days.

"I didn't want to just jump into bed with him. I finally slept with him on Christmas Eve. He called me his 'little parcel'."

On the day Hoogstraten proposed to Tanaka in Harare, late in 1999, their relationship hit the rocks.

She said: "He gave me two teddy bears, then he pulled out a diamond-encrusted gold watch, which he told me was very expensive.

"Then, without any warning, he took out a ruby and diamond ring and said, 'That's your engagement ring'.

"I said something like OK but inside I was shocked. I really didn't want to get engaged to him because I was starting to have my doubts about him.

"He kept saying how expensive the ring was and I shouldn't walk around town with it on. I think he was more worried about the jewellery than me."

As Hoogstraten's possessiveness grew, the ring became not a token of love but a deed of ownership.

She said: "He nagged like an old woman, constantly bothering me and asking where I had been. He called my friends 'lowlifes' and 'riffraff'.

"Nick even got the night porter at his hotel where I stayed to spy on me and tell him what time I got in."

Tanaka left Zimbabwe for the last time in February last year and moved into Hoogstraten's three-star Courtlands Hotel in Hove.

It was that month that she started to feel ill every morning and discovered, to her horror, that she was pregnant.

She said: "He was elated but right away I knew I would have to get rid of it. Why would I want to have Nick's kids? I know how he treats women. I didn't want that tie with him so I got rid of it."

Hoogstraten has four sons and one daughter from three different women. He is estranged from two of them but has remained close to Caroline Williams, with whom he has two children.

One evening at the start of this year, while Tanaka was staying with friends after another bust-up with Hoogstraten, he called her from a police station to say he had been arrested in connection with Mr Raja's death.

Tanaka wasn't surprised because by now nothing about him could shock her.

She said: "When I first visited him in England, I found a big stack of newspaper articles about himself and the way he treated people.

"There were lots and lots of articles about Mohammed Raja. When I asked about him he would say he was a maggot and a dirtbag."

After three weeks in jail, Hoogstraten was released on bail. The couple's rows grew more frequent and culminated in the bloody confrontation on March 23.

Tanaka said: "At the time I was studying at Varndean College in Brighton and he would only allow me to go out once a week, on a Thursday. I started lying to him, saying I had exams when I didn't.

"When he found out, he went mad. He started shouting at me, saying I must have been out with another man.

"When I refused to tell him he slapped me a couple of times and grabbed my hair and some big clumps came off in his hand.

"Then he took off his slipper and started hitting me across the face with it. Then it broke and he ran off and got one of his shoes. It was an Italian shoe with a big heel.

"He hit me and hit me above my eye, screaming 'you bitch, I know you've been with another man. From now on you are not allowed to go anywhere'."

Dazed and bleeding, Tanaka ran to a friend who took her to Brighton police station.

She said: "The police took me into a room and when they found out it was Hoogstraten, they went and arrested him.

"I was in such a mess. He had hit my hand with his shoe and it had the mark of the heel on it.

"They took me to hospital and X-rayed me because I could only see out of one eye."

At first Tanaka agreed to testify against Hoogstraten during the murder trial but later retracted her statements and refused to give evidence. She insists she simply wants to start afresh.

She said: "People say that because I changed my mind about testifying, I was either threatened or bought off.

"The truth is I just didn't want to go through it all. I want to move on."

From his cell at Belmarsh prison, south-east London, Hoogstraten has been sending Tanaka letters, pleading with her to stay with him.

The last, dated July 4, tells her how the case is progressing, before ending: "This letter is not as cheerful as it may appear as there is always the unknown factor and I live in fear.

"I have to trust in God and the prayers of all the good people who are concerned for me."

Tanaka hasn't replied to any of the letters. She has a new boyfriend, a 29-year-old security officer, and is determined to make a fresh start and pursue her dream of becoming an actress.

But there is one conversation with Hoogstraten she will never forget.

She said: "Once I was just playing around and I asked him if he thought he was God. He said he thought he was on a level slightly higher than Jesus - and he wasn't joking.

"He said, 'I have got so much money I can say and do whatever I like'."

Today Hoogstraten is learning a very different truth.