POLICE have said they intend to interview a key suspect in the Jeremy Thorpe scandal after it was revealed he may be alive and living under an assumed name.
Gwent Police closed the investigation into the alleged attempted murder of the former Liberal leader’s lover, Norman Scott, on the grounds that suspect Andrew Newton was dead.
Now, amid claims of a cover-up, the force has admitted he could still be alive. Yesterday, the Mail on Sunday newspaper said Newton was living in Surrey under the alias of Hann Redwin.
Thorpe, who died four years ago, was accused of hiring Newton to murder Scott in 1975. He stood trial four years later but was acquitted. The affair, which has just been recreated by the BBC in its drama A Very English Scandal, in which Hugh Grant plays Thorpe, rocked the establishment and has for decades been the subject of claims of a cover-up. Scott said he and Thorpe became lovers in the early 1960s when homosexuality was still illegal. He claimed Thorpe plotted with colleagues to have him assassinated after he threatened to reveal the relationship publicly.
Newton shot Scott’s dog but failed to kill Scott after his gun jammed. The ensuing court case shocked the country, as Scott revealed his relationship with Thorpe, who resigned as leader of the Liberal Party and then lost his North Devon seat.
A Panorama investigation shown last night after the end of the final part of the dramatisation centred on claims by another man, Dennis Meighan. He said he was initially approached to kill Scott but got cold feet. Meighan claimed his police statement was doctored to take out incriminating references to Thorpe and the Liberal Party.
“Newton was arrested and I was visited by three policemen,” Meighan said. “They knew about me from Newton, so I admitted it all in a statement, mentioning Jeremy Thorpe and how I was hired by his representative. I thought they’d nick me, but they just said they’d be in touch.”
He said he was later asked to sign a statement that made no mention of Thorpe. He also said the statement put him in the clear.
Meighan went public with his claims two years ago, prompting the reopening of the investigation, but it was closed last year, with police saying Newton had died.
The decision to revisit the case was welcomed by Scott. He said: “The whole affair was covered up by the establishment at the time and, until now, it seemed that Gwent Police was covering it up again.”
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