Rostam Notarki given seven-year sentence after blow with ironing board sent wealthy American into the path of a van in south-west London

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A gastropub landlord has been jailed for seven years after killing a wealthy American man.

Rostam Notarki chased 53-year-old Charles Hickox out of the Cardinal Wolsey near Hampton Court Palace in south-west London, after the victim went to confront staff about his missing credit card.

The publican “jabbed” Mr Hickox with the ironing board from behind, sending him hurtling into the path of an oncoming van.

Notarki, 53, of Twickenham, south-west London, denied the killing, claiming he was acting in self-defence as he feared his son would be attacked after Mr Hickox hit Notarki with a tennis racquet.

But a jury at the Old Bailey rejected his defence and found him guilty of manslaughter on 1 July. He had already admitted hiding CCTV footage of the incident from a police search of the pub.

His son Kian, 20, and barman Mehrad Mohmadi, 45, of Radcliffe Mews in Hampton, south-west London, who helped conceal the hard drive and monitor, were convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft QC said: “The facts of the case are very unusual, probably unique.”

He jailed Notarki for seven years for the killing and nine months for perverting the course of justice, to run concurrently. Kian Notarki and Mohmadi were each jailed for 12 months.

The court heard Hickox was an American gambler who, while giving the appearance of being a homeless tramp, had access to large amounts of money.

Among the possessions he carried around in blue plastic bags were two tennis racquets and two ornamental mice, which he would place in front of him in pubs and talk to.



The “scruffy and unkempt” drifter, who had a talent for calculating the odds, had been at the Wolsey earlier on 7 September last year to buy three bottles of fine Italian wine at £65 each.

Notarki had switched the wine for a cheaper vintage before ejecting Hickox from the bar of the smart gastropub and hotel, jurors were told.

When the victim realised the Visa card he used to pay for the wine was missing, he went back with a tennis racquet in each hand to demand it back, having told his companions he might “have to crack some ribs to get it”.

The victim pushed the landlord using one of the racquets and then ran off, pursued by Notarki carrying an ironing board, and his son Kian wielding an iron bar.

As he was being chased outside the pub, a witness described Hickox as looking terrified and “running for his life”.

The court heard that Hickox was estranged from his family in the US but was described by a friend in Britain as an intelligent man.

Notarki held the hand of his son, who shook his head, as the judge rejected his lawyer’s call for a suspended sentence and jailed him.

The court heard that since the death of Hickox, Notarki’s pub business had failed.