The 1970s sex scandal that led to a sensational trial

The story took a further twist in October 1977 when the London Evening News published a sensational headline, “I’m set to kill Scott.” Freshly out of prison, Newton had withdrawn his blackmail defense and was now claiming to have been paid £5,000 as part of what the newspaper described as a “sinister plot involving a senior Liberal supporter”. Another nine months of police investigation led to Thorpe and three associates being charged with conspiring to murder Scott. The press called it “the trial of the century.” At Thorpe’s request, it was adjourned for eight days so that he could fight for his parliamentary seat at the general election in May 1979. He was soundly defeated.

At the end of the trial, the judge gave what BBC Panorama’s Tom Mangold described as “one of the most astonishing partial summaries ever given to a jury”. Judge Cantlay said that because the prosecution’s three main witnesses had struck lucrative deals to sell their stories to the press upon their conviction, their evidence was tainted. The judge said Bissell was a “nonsense” while Newton was “a buffoon, a perjurer and almost certainly a fraud.” As for Scott, he was described as “a fraud, a fraud, a whiner and a parasite.”

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By contrast, Thorpe was “a national figure with a very distinguished public record.” In the judge’s summary, memorably distorted by comedian Peter Cook, he instructed the jury that if there was any reasonable doubt that Thorpe planned to kill Scott, they should acquit him. The verdict was not guilty. Speaking later with his steadfast wife Marion by his side, Thorpe said: “I have always maintained that I am innocent of the charges brought against me, and the verdict of the jury, after a lengthy and careful investigation by them, I regard as entirely just and a complete acquittal.”

After the trial, Scott retreated from the spotlight. In 2022, at the age of 82, he released his autobiography, Accidental Icon. As for Thorpe, he retired from public life, maintaining his innocence until the end. He died in 2014. In an interview with The Guardian in 2008, Thorpe spoke about the case: “If it happened now, I think… the public would be kinder. At the time they were very upset with him. He offended their set of values.”