Cops will quiz Thorpe hitman ... 43 years on
Officers call on ‘dead man’ at home after discovery that he is still alive
POLICE knocked on the door of the Jeremy Thorpe “hitman” yesterday – after it was dramatically revealed that he is still alive.
Detectives had apparently believed Andrew “Gino” Newton, 71, died years ago. But in a sensational development, which is likely to reignite one of Britain’s biggest ever political scandals, Newton has now been found living under an assumed name in Surrey.
Police want to quiz him over claims he hired old school friend Dennis Meighan to kill Liberal leader Thorpe’s gay ex-lover Norman Scott in 1975.
When the pal changed his mind, Newton stepped in. He shot Scott’s great dane Rinka on Exmoor.
He was convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger Norman Scott’s life and jailed for two years.
In 1979, Thorpe and three other men stood trial but were cleared of conspiracy to kill Scott.
But in 2014, Meighan, now 71, told a newspaper he had been offered £13,500 – equal to £140,000 today – by Newton and a “representative” of Thorpe to get rid of the male model.
He said they believed Scott was threatening to publicly reveal details of their affair, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. Meighan says he confessed to the police, mentioning Thorpe.
But he insisted detectives cleared him and prepared a statement for him to sign which didn’t mention Thorpe.
Meighan now faces possible prosecution for conspiring to murder Scott.
The incredible breakthrough has stunned Scott who told the Daily Mirror: “I always thought justice would prevail in the end.
“Even now I still believe justice will finally be done.”
Yesterday at 2.15pm a plainclothed detective from Gwent Police, the force leading the inquiry, and a uniformed Surrey officer knocked on the door of the detached home in Dorking, where Newton has been staying. They left after no one answered the door. Last week viewers of the three-part TV drama A Very English Scandal saw Blake Harrison, playing Newton, try to murder Scott, played by Ben
Whishaw. Gwent Police re-opened inquiries in 2016 in a case called Operation Velum but closed it last year saying they could take it no further.
Now they say: “We have 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.”
They added it had “lines of inquiry open” but would not provide further comment “at this time”.
Senior CPS prosecutor Nicola Rees had told Scott in a letter back in February 2017: “Various key witnesses are now deceased, including Andrew Newton.”
But in reality Newton, a pilot, had changed his name to Hann Redwin and was splitting his time living in Dorking with his girlfriend and at a property in London. There was no sign of Newton yesterday at the home he shared with girlfriend Patsy Frankham.
She left at 9am in a blue Toyota, returning alone at 4.45pm. She refused to speak. Neighbours say Newton has been coming and going for a year or two.
A neighbour said of Patsy: “She’s the sweetest, loveliest person or neighbour you could ask for. No one would have a bad word to say against her.
“She worked as a nurse at the GP surgery for years and everyone there loved her and didn’t want her to leave.
“She retired about a year ago and he’s been coming and going for maybe a year or two.”
Newton, who is refusing to discuss the events from the 1970s, told Thorpe’s 1979 Old Bailey trial he had been paid to kill Scott.
He admitted killing Rinka and was planning to shoot Scott but the gun jammed.
Scott recently invited the Daily Mirror to his home on Dartmoor.
He said: “People do get fed up with everything being re-hashed but hopefully the younger generation will see what really happened and that there was an establishment cover-up back then.
“Even now the establishment are still trying to look after their own. I’m still very confident that truth will out.
“I still dream of justice. I’d love it if somehow it’s proved in a court of law I was telling the truth.” The chilling details of his near-death experience are still vivid for Scott. He recalled: “He shot Rinka and then he tried to shoot me. “But the gun didn’t go off. Even now I can still see him shaking the gun in front of the car headlights shouting ‘f***, f***, f***’. “I was so upset by the shooting of Rinka that I tried to give her the kiss of life. I was covered in her blood.” The scandal destroyed the political career of Thorpe, who died aged 85 in 2014. A Very English Scandal, which starred Hugh Grant as Thorpe and was directed by Stephen Frears, concluded last night.