The psychiatrist who examines tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten before he is sentenced for manslaughter should find him an interesting case.

Here is a man who has enjoyed notoriety and revelled in evil to an extent almost unknown before.

There could hardly be a greater contrast with another wicked man who has been much in the news during the last week, Dr Harold Shipman.

The family doctor in Greater Manchester has steadfastly refused to admit to his crimes, despite overwhelming evidence, and managed to get away with them for so long because he was trusted by the community he served.

Hoogstraten was a truculent teenager who made a fortune before he was 21 and was Britain's youngest millionaire in the days before inflation made a mockery of that amount of cash.

The ease with which he accumulated that fortune may have contributed towards the air of invincibility he always felt surrounded him.

When he first went to prison the first time, the experience seemed to harden rather than tame him. He boasted that he emerged richer, meaner and cleverer.

While there, he not only managed to bribe a prison warder but he also conned a Roman Catholic priest into believing he would reform his wicked ways.

Hoogstraten believed he could get away with anything because it often appeared that he could. He used the Press and television to frighten tenants and business associates with lurid tales of what he had done and threats of action he would take.

It was a clever mixture of bluff, bluster and boasts which usually did the trick.

Even over a minor matter such as the public footpath running through his grounds, he managed to gain the upper hand when he was plainly in the wrong.

The courts found against him but he continued to block the path and it remains obstructed to this day.

There was no doubt about his financial acumen. He got out of rented property for the most part at the right time and made sure he was never in hock to anyone.

His forecasts of what would happen in the markets and to business were often uncannily accurate.

Unlike many villains, he was articulate and used his way with words to great effect, whether it was to charm women or to frighten men.

It was always on his terms and in any relationship he always had to have the upper hand. Hoogstraten did not want to be worsted by anyone and that helped lead to his downfall.

Mohammed Raja, a slum landlord with far less money or flair than Hoogstraten, would not lie down when instructed and persisted in action against him.

This enraged the tycoon, who resolved to frighten him. The result was Raja's death and Hoogstraten's conviction for killing him.

It could be that Hoogstraten was starting to lose his touch.

His much-vaunted friendship with Robert Mugabe did not prevent the African despot from seizing his land.

His palace at Framfield may never be completed because the project is fraught with financial problems.

In hiring hitmen, Hoogstraten selected two elderly, downmarket druggies rather than smooth operators.

There is just a chance that Hoogstraten could have the last laugh. He will appeal against a conviction which took the jury more than a week to agree and then only by a majority.

It is possible he could walk free.

If he loses, the future is bleak. He was chipper and cocky when sent down in the Sixties but there is a world of difference between going down for a few years in your 20s and facing a lengthy sentence when you are 57.

As he grows older and more frail, he may find that none of us is invincible, not even him.

But that realisation is unlikely to hit him while there is still hope and the psychiatrist will probably have a tough time.