Ernst fights knuckleduster claim

One of Europe's most colourful aristocrats, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, has begun a legal battle in Germany to overturn a conviction for busting a man's jaw with a knuckleduster. Eight years ago, the Prince, who is married to Princess Caroline of Monaco and is a cousin of the Queen, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to the owner of a disco in Lamu, Kenya, where he has a holiday home.

He has never been happy about the ruling, nor that it resulted in him being given a criminal record. So he has taken the matter to the regional court in Hildesheim, northern Germany, where he is claiming he was misrepresented in the original hearing and is demanding a retrial. "It is important for him to establish that he is not the kind of person who would set about somebody with a knuckleduster and cause injuries," said his lawyer, Hans Wolfgang Euler. "My client has never owned a knuckleduster in his life nor held one in his hand."

The first court case appeared watertight. The Prince had been enjoying the night air with Princess Caroline when he was disturbed by techno rave across the water from his house, organised by Josef Brunlehner, a German discotheque owner. The Prince, 54, says he was told by the Kenyan authorities that they were measuring the noise levels and that he should cross to the other side of the water. Hanover made his way over by boat and, so he says, merely cuffed Brunlehner twice round the ears, saying: "This one's for the music, and this one is for the light."

Brunlehner, however, said it was far worse, claiming he was so badly beaten he had to be flown to the emergency unit of Mombasa hospital. Experts testified at the trial that the wounds must have been inflicted by a "half-sharp instrument". The court was told that the enraged Prince, while punching his victim, had yelled out: "You German pig. You pimp. I'll put a Mafia gang on you and they will slice you up."

Miraculously, the Prince has found five Kenyans who were on the beach at the time who are ready to say that he did not use any kind of weapon. If the Prince used only his bare fists he could hope, in a retrial, to face lesser charges of assault. And if he can persuade a court that he simply lost his temper, he may yet extinguish his criminal record.