The 1970s sex scandal that led to a dramatic trial

The story took yet another twist in October 1977 when the London Evening News ran the sensational headline, “I Was Hired to Kill Scott.” Fresh out of prison, Newton recanted his blackmail defence and was now claiming he was paid £5,000 as part of what the paper described as a “sinister conspiracy involving a leading Liberal supporter”. Nine more months of police investigation led to Thorpe and three associates being charged with conspiring to murder Scott. It was dubbed by the press “the trial of the century”. At Thorpe’s request, it was postponed for eight days so that he could fight for his parliamentary seat in the May 1979 general election. He was heavily defeated.  

At the end of the trial, the judge delivered what BBC Panorama’s Tom Mangold described as “one of the most astonishingly partial summing-up speeches ever to a jury”. Mr Justice Cantley said that because the three main prosecution witnesses had struck lucrative deals for selling their stories to the press upon conviction, their testimonies had been tainted. Bessell, said the judge, was “a humbug” while Newton was “a buffoon, perjurer and almost certainly a fraud”. As for Scott, he was labelled “a crook, fraud, sponger, whiner and parasite”.  

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By contrast, Thorpe was “a national figure with a very distinguished public record”. In the judge’s summing up, skewered memorably by the comedian Peter Cook, he directed the jury that if there was any reasonable doubt that Thorpe planned to kill Scott, they must acquit. The verdict was not guilty. Speaking later with his steadfast wife Marion beside him, Thorpe said: “I have always maintained that I was innocent of the charges brought against me, and the verdict of the jury, after a prolonged and careful investigation by them, I regard as totally fair and a complete vindication.” 

Following the trial, Scott retreated from the limelight. In 2022 at the age of 82, he released his autobiography, titled An Accidental Icon. As for Thorpe, he retired from public life while maintaining his innocence to the end. He died in 2014. In a Guardian interview in 2008, Thorpe reflected on the affair: “If it happened now, I think… the public would be kinder. Back then they were very troubled by it. It offended their set of values.”