And Sir Mark has denied being the Scratcher named in an intercepted note smuggled

And Sir Mark has denied being the “Scratcher” named in an intercepted note smuggled from prison by Mr Mann.All the allegations will eventually be tested in court, but when and where remains uncertain. In the meantime, Equatorial Guinea is enjoying its moment in the spotlight, launching court actions in Britain against alleged coup backers and in South Africa to question Sir Mark. His friend, Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, has denied being the “JH Archer” listed as transferring money to one of Mr Mann’s companies just before the attempted coup. Under pressure from Diane to return to Texas, he put the mansion on the market for just under £2m – though not with Pam Golding, locals have noticed. But on 25 August, just a day before he was due to depart, he was arrested.In the torrent of leaks, allegations and off-the-record briefings which has poured out since, Ely Calil, a Lebanese-born oil trader based in London, has been named as the mastermind of the plot, which he denies. He had just met an aircraft which had arrived from Pretoria with more than 60 former members of South Africa’s special forces aboard.

All were jailed for up to a year on immigration charges, while Mr Mann is serving seven years for illegal arms buying. Mr du Toit, seven other South Africans and six Armenian aircrew are on trial in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, where they are due to hear the verdicts today.David Tremain, meanwhile, is said to have been on a light aicraft, flown by Crause Steyl, which was flying to Equatorial Guinea. They reached Mali before they learned that the coup had collapsed, and turned back. Mr Tremain denies the allegations, but has not deemed it prudent to return to South Africa to contest them.Sir Mark, whose circle had left Constantia, was preparing to leave himself.

With his wealth he acquired a property in Constantia and an estate in Hampshire.During poolside barbecues Sir Mark met Mr Mann’s friend David Tremain, an Anglo-South African and fellow Constantia resident who, like Sir Mark, was engaged in dealmaking around Africa. There were also former members of South Africa’s apartheid-era special forces who supplied the bulk of Executive Outcomes’ muscle, such as Nick du Toit and Crause Steyl.Mr Mann was arrested at Harare airport in Zimbabwe with a cache of arms. But most of his new friends had, notably the one to whom he seems to have been closest. It is easy to imagine that the former prime minister’s socially inept son found much to admire in Simon Mann, an old Etonian his own age – they are both in their early 50s – who served in the Guards and the SAS before making a fortune in Africa with Executive Outcomes, the first of the private military companies which have proliferated in the world’s trouble spots. If one “Constantia set” rejected him, he found another: men who, like him, were happier talking about aircraft and fast cars than world politics or the kind of Third World poverty you can observe in Cape Town, if you emerge from the Constantia cocoon.Though he carries himself with a ramrod military bearing, Sir Mark has never been in the army. “We weren’t impressed,” said a guest at a dinner party Ms Golding gave for the new arrival.