Police pay alleged Thorpe ‘hitman’ a visit
Discovery that alleged hitman is alive and well raises questions over conduct of officers
Police officers yesterday visited the home of the man who allegedly tried to murder Jeremy Thorpe’s former gay lover on his behalf, and who was until recently assumed to be dead. However, there was no response at the house in Dorking, Surrey, believed to be occupied by Andrew Newton. Gwent Police were criticised for closing their investigation in the belief Newton was dead, when in fact he was still alive.
LIFE is sometimes stranger than fiction. Or at least that seems to be the case with regards to the Jeremy Thorpe scandal.
As viewers awaited the final instalment of the BBC drama series that has reignited the nation’s interest in the case, police officers arrived yesterday morning at the home of the man who allegedly attempted to murder the Liberal leader’s former gay lover on his behalf, and who was until recently assumed to be dead.
A detective sergeant in plain-clothes from Gwent police and a uniformed officer arrived at the semi-detached house in Dorking, Surrey, which is believed to be occupied by Andrew Newton, shortly after 2pm yesterday.
The men arrived in a Surrey police car, knocked on the door where Newton – who is thought to have been using the alias Hann Redwin – has been staying with his partner, then left after appearing to receive no response.
The discovery that Newton is alive and well will raise serious concerns over the conduct of Gwent police.
As news of Newton’s resurrection broke, Sir Paul Beresford, the Conservative MP for Dorking, told The Daily Telegraph he had spoken to several constituents who had been aware of Redwin’s true identity “for some considerable time”.
Sir Paul said locals were “unsure” whether to take the rumours seriously, but “the fact that they have found him doesn’t come as a stunning surprise to everybody”.
Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, said it was “shocking” Gwent police had “closed down their investigation on the belief that this man had died”.
“It’s impossible to cover this up,” Mr Flynn said. “If their decision on the evidence that this man had died was tenuous and wasn’t worth stopping the inquiry, then that’s got to come out. We’d all like to know what the truth is, and to have justice for Norman Scott, a man who has been treated abominably.” The appearance of police officers from South Wales in the Dorking suburb followed fresh claims that “Redwin” is the man who in 1975 was hired on behalf of MP Thorpe to assassinate Norman Scott, his ex-boyfriend. Newton, a former airline pilot, was claimed to have agreed to shoot the former stable boy, whom Thorpe befriended in the Sixties, when homosexuality was illegal, at a meeting in a west London café attended by Dennis Meighan and David Holmes, a close friend of old-etonian Thorpe.
Meighan, a small-time gun dealer, later claimed to have given a full account of the conspiracy, including the £13,500 (equivalent to £140,000 today) Newton was allegedly promised in return for carrying out the killing, to Scotland Yard in 1978. In the statement, which has never been found, Meighan said Newton was given a converted Mauser pistol, which he used to shoot Scott’s Great Dane Rinka before allegedly turning the weapon on its owner. Allegedly, the gun jammed, allowing Scott to escape.
Two years after Meighan’s 2014 “confession”, Gwent police launched Operation Velum. However, it was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2017, after information supplied by the force suggested key witnesses – Newton included – had died.
The discovery that Newton, now 71, has been living in Surrey all along reopens old wounds – not least for Scott, still alive and still demanding to know why neither Meighan nor Newton were ever brought to justice.
A spokesman for the force was not available for comment.
Neighbours of Newton’s partner, a retired nurse who was seen at the property yesterday, said: “He seemed normal to me. Just that, normal.”
Meanwhile, a local dog owner told of his dismay at learning the killer of Scott’s beloved pet lived just a few doors away, and joked: “If one of my dogs goes missing I know where I will be looking and asking the police to go.”