Repairmen found Thorpe, Scott papers in hidden case

Press, 8 December 1978, Page 7

Repairmen found Thorpe, Scott papers in hidden case

NZPA-Reuter Minehead! Builders refurbishing a London office stumbled across a hidden cupboard and found documents linking the names of the former Liberal leader, Jeremy Thorpe, and the former male model who claims they were once homosexual lovers, a court has been told. Before the Minehead Magistrates are Thorpe, aged 49, and three other men who deny charges that they plot-i ted to kill the model, Norman! Scott. The Crown prosecutor has alleged that Thorpe feared that his career would be ruined by wild talk by Mr Scott, who was claiming to have been seduced in 1961 by the politician. One of Thorpe’s close friends at that time was Peter Bessell, then a Liberal member of Parliament. He was asked by Thorpe to look after the Scott problem, the court has been told, and he paid Mr Scott a retainer. Mr Scott was pestering Thorpe and had written to the politician’s elderly, white-haired mother, Mrs Ursula Thorpe, making his allegations about the homosexuality, the court has been told. In 1974 Mr Bessell’s business failed and he went to live in the United States. Builders moved in to refurbish his office in London’s fashionable Pall Mall.

li In statements read to the! 'court yesterday by the prot; secutor (Mr Peter Taylor), i two builders described findl ing a black document case ; hidden in a concealed cupj ; I board in the ceiling. There 1 ! were letters, account books, > cheque stubs — and some of - the material related to > Thorpe. I One letter was from Mr L Scott to Mrs Ursula Thorpe. ! The builders described how >jthe ‘‘Sunday Mirror” news- - i paper paid them £2OO i|($NZ3B4) for the letters. ! A statement to the court! > from the newspaper said its 1 legal department kept copies j of the documents which were r given to Thorpe. > The Magistrates are sitting I to decide whether- Thorpe and three co-defendants should 3 be sent for trial on con--5 spiracy charges for plotting 1 an abortive attempt to Murj der Mr Scott. t The Crown case is that an ; airline pilot called Andrew I Newton was hired to kill Mr Scott but, either because he ’ lost his nerve or his gun > jammed, he bungled the at- , tempt and only shot dead Mr! s Scott’s Great Dane dog on s an October night in 1975 ini - the hills near Minehead. i The magistrates yesterday heard transcripts of tape res cordings alleged to have been t on conversations involving . others among the accused. - The prosecutor said he had s expert witnesses available to testify to their authenticity.

One of the transcripts wasj alleged to have been a conversation on the telephone between Newton and David Holmes, a merchant banker and former deputy treasurer of the Liberal Party, who is one of the four accused. The. conversation was alleged to have taken place after NewTon came out of jail and had 'been paid £5OOO (8NZ9000). Newton said that the press had been hammering at his door and wanted “to tie up the boss angle.” He appeared to mean that newspapers [wanted to discover if any role had been played by the South African security police, then called the Durenu for State Security and known as Boss.

He also spoke of the possibility that the police would interview Holmes.

“If you say nothing, I say nothing, they won’t, be able to prove anything,” Mr Holmes said.

At another point, Holmes said: “stop producing names in every conversation, it terrifies me.”

The next tape recording was made by a printer called David Miller who helped arrange a meeting at which the gunman is alleged to have been paid by another of the accused, a carpet dealer, John le Mesurier. Mr Miller has told the court that he started taping conversations as a precaution because he was afraid that his part in the affair would

[get him into trouble. Mr Miller and le Mesurier discussed getting a message to Mr Newton when he was still in prison telling him that his money was waiting for him, and Mr Miller also complained that reporters seemed to know the story. Le Mesurier said, “But I how much is bluffing? They! are just guessing. watCng! for you to admit it.” He also! said that the newspapers ris- 1 ked being sued by one ofi Britain's leading lawyers, Lord Goodman. [ Le esurier complained that Mr Newton did not seem to be a very intelligent character. Then the Crown put into the witness box a burly former soldier who had served in a Welsh Infantry Regiment for 16 years. The soldier, Colin Lambert, said he worked as a carpet salesman for le Mesurier, who had admitted to him that he had handed over the £5OOO pay-off money to [the gunman Newton. ' : [ “Mr le Mesurier said a , [fool had been hired to kill! [Norman Scott and someone] I like myself should have been! [hired to do the job.” ! ! Mr Lambert insisted to! ■[the court that he would; [never in fact be involved in [ . I that kind of thing. He [wanted the press to make it | clear that he was not “some I sort of an American from . | Detroit who goes around II killing people.”