Knock knock! Police in hunt for hitman they said was dead
POLICE were hunting for the prime suspect in one of the greatest British political scandals last night after being forced to admit he is still alive.
Detectives raced to the home of Andrew Newton, who is suspected of trying to kill Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe’s gay ex-lover more than four decades ago.
But in farcical scenes, they left emptyhanded after he appeared to have fled the Surrey cul-de-sac hours earlier – as neighbours confirmed he is alive and well.
Investigators believed the former pilot died 14 years ago. Prosecutors abandoned the case as a trial could not be brought.
But a simple Google search would have revealed he is now calling himself Hann Redwin and has been photographed at a fetish convention.
The revelation throws open the extraordinary affair which rocked the nation in 1975, with detectives probing whether Mr Newton plotted murder.
It came as the BBC aired the final episode of its dramatisation of the controversy, A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant as Thorpe.
Last night, Norman Scott, 78, the intended victim, said there has been ‘a lot of skulduggery’ and it is time for the truth to come out.
‘I just don’t think anyone’s tried hard enough to look for him, I really don’t,’ he said. ‘I thought [the police] were doing something at last and soon found out that absolutely they weren’t, they were continuing the cover-up as far as I can see.’
Thorpe was accused of hiring a hitman to murder his former secret lover in 1975, but was acquitted alongside three other men in an Old Bailey trial in 1979.
After Thorpe’s death in 2014, Dennis Meighan, now 71, claimed he was offered £13,500, equivalent to £140,000 today, by Mr Newton and a ‘representative’ of Thorpe to silence Mr Scott.
The Devon MP feared Mr Scott would air details of their affair, which took place at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.
Despite the huge fee, Mr Meighan went to police and confessed to his and Thorpe’s involvement.
But he claimed both their roles were covered up to protect the senior politician, potentially by shadowy elements within the Establishment.
A fresh police investigation, codenamed Operation Velum, was launched by Gwent Police in 2016, because they had no links to the original saga.
But the case was dropped a year later after officers told prosecutors that Mr Newton, the only person who could back up Mr Meighan’s claims, was dead.
He is said to have taken on the role of hitman after Mr Meighan
‘A seriously strange man’
– an old school friend – withdrew. Mr Newton was convicted of shooting Mr Scott’s dog Rinka in 1976. Mr Scott claims he escaped death after Mr Newton turned the gun on him, but it jammed.
Mr Newton gave evidence for the prosecution at Thorpe’s trial for conspiracy to murder. He was ultimately jailed for possession of a firearm.
Yesterday, a plain- clothes detective made the 160-mile trip to Mr Newton’s £500,000 home near Dorking, Surrey.
Accompanied by a uniformed constable from the local force, the officer knocked on the door but received no answer. In a statement, Gwent Police said: ‘We have now revisited these enquiries and have identified information which indicates that Mr Newton may still be alive.
‘As a result, further enquiries will be conducted to trace Mr Newton to assess if he is able to assist the investigation.’
Neighbours revealed Mr Newton has been living there under his new name for several years with his 61- year- old partner Patricia Frankham.
On Saturday, Mr Newton was photographed dressed casually in a blue shirt and jeans as he returned from a shopping trip. According to posts online, those who know him described him as ‘a seriously strange man’ known for his ‘distinctly short shorts’. One resident said: ‘What I don’t understand is why it has taken this long for the police to arrive... you would also see him coming and going.’ Gwent Police did not respond to requests to explain why it took up to eight officers a year to conclude Mr Newton was dead. In 2004 – the year police said he died – he was photographed wearing a thong, top hat and tails, at the Skin Two Rubber Ball fetish convention at west London’s Hammersmith Palais.
Yesterday, Mr Meighan, who lives in west London, branded the police reinvestigation ‘crazy’, adding: ‘It’s all been said’.
Earlier, he branded the BBC drama ‘a load of cobblers’.
The three men who went on trial with Thorpe for conspiracy to murder were Liberal party deputy treasurer David Holmes, businessman George Deakin and John Le Mesurier (not to be confused with the Dad’s Army actor).
Mr Deakin told the Daily Mail: ‘I have nothing to say’. Mr Holmes and Mr Le Mesurier are dead.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said it is waiting for a new file from police.