‘Lover was threat, so Thorpe plotted murder'

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 6

‘Lover was threat, so Thorpe plotted murder'

■NZPA-Reuter London > Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the British Liberal Party, was desperate about [his political career because of wild talk by a man he had seduced, so he plotted to kill him, a jurv has been told.

During the early 1960 s he had a homosexual affair with a male model called Norman Scott who thereafter became a nagging threat, said Peter Taylor, prosecuting Thorpe and three other men accused with him of conspiring to murder Mr Scott.

The prosecutor added: “In 1967 Mr Thorpe was elected leader of the Liberal Party. But the higher he climbed on the political ladder, the greater was the threat to his ambitions from Scott. “His anxiety became an obsession and" his thoughts desperate,” Mr Taylor told the jury of nine men and three women in the most sensational British trial this century.

The prosecutor told the jury that Thorpe had consistently denied having had homosexual relations with Mr Scott. But the Crown had in its possession letters by Thorpe which, he said, tended to confirm what Scott would say about the alleged affair.

Mr Scott was not in court — under British law, witnesses are not present before they testify. Thorpe, who is 50, once

I voted Britain's most popular 'politician, looked gaunt and I weary as he sat in the dock, hunched in an overcoat, listening to Mr Taylor outline the Crown case against him.

If convicted, he could face 10 years imprisonment. The prosecutor said Thorpe was elected to Parliament in 1959 — he lost his North Devon seat only last week in the British General Election — and said he met Mr Scott two years later. Both were bachelors, Thorpe, aged 32. and Mr Scott, 21. Mr Scott, who is fond of horses, had a nervous breakdown and lost his job at a riding stables. After ! a period in a clinic he went ito the House of Commons [ seeking help from Thorpe. The politician took him to the home in Surrey of his (mother. Mrs Ursula Thorpe, (and, that night, visited his (room, and sexual relations ;took place. Thorpe’s homosexual afI fair with Scott lasted until (1963, Mr Taylor said. Afterwards. Mr Scott pestered the politician for help and talked of the relationship, with others.

Early in 1969, behind a locked door at his room at the House of Commons, Mr Thorpe had urged a fellow defendant, David Holmes, a former deputy treasurer of the Liberal Party, to kill Scott, said the prosecutor. Present had been Peter Bessel!, then a Liberal member of Parliament. He is a

[star Crown witness and has (been flown to London with [immunity from prosecution [to give evidence. “Holmes and Bessel! tried over a period of time to dis(suade Mr Thorpe from hiS I plan,” said Mr Taylor. But just before the General Election in 1974 Mr I Scott went to live in tha ' Thorpe constituency, "talking openly about his relationship.” “The accused, David Holmes eventually became convinced that ... the only way to stop this threat ot Mr Thorpe and the Libera! Party effectively was to kill Scott.”

He knew the two other accused, John le Mesurier, a burly carpet trader, and George Deakin, a fruit-mach-ine dealer. Deakin had recruited an airline pilot called Andrew Newton as a hired assassin, w r ho lured Mr Scott, on to a desolate moor and produced a gun.

I He shot Mr Scott's Great [Dane bitch, Rinka, but failed Ito shoot Mr Scott, the prosecutor said. He was briefly [jailed, for having a firearm | with intent to endanger life, [then, at a remote spot in (south Wales, he was paid 5000 ($9950) by Mr le Mesurier.

I All four accused have (pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder and Mr Thorpe has pleaded not. guilty to an additional charge of incitement to murder. The trial could go on for three months.