Jeremy Thorpe

John Jeremy Thorpe (born 29 April 1929) is a British politician, who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. He lost his position, as well as his seat in Parliament, after he was accused of conspiring to murder a man who claimed to be a former lover, of which charges he was acquitted.

Persistent rumours about Thorpe's sexuality dogged his political career, particularly in relation to an alleged homosexual affair with Norman Scott, a former male model. Scott met Thorpe in 1961 while working as a stable lad, and claimed that he had a homosexual relationship with Thorpe between 1961 and 1963, at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in Britain. Scott's airing of these claims led to an inquiry within the Liberal Party in 1971, which exonerated Thorpe. Scott, however, continued to make the allegations.

In October 1975, while walking a friend's female Great Dane (called "Rinka") on Exmoor, Scott was confronted by Andrew "Gino" Newton, a former airline pilot, who was armed with a gun. Newton shot and killed the dog, which had been lent to Scott for protection, then pointed the gun at Scott, but it apparently failed to go off. The subsequent scandal embroiled Thorpe and is now referred to by some as "Rinkagate" but this term was not used at the time.

Newton was convicted of the offence in March 1976. Scott once again used his Court appearance to air his claims of a relationship with Thorpe, alleging that the latter had threatened to kill him if he spoke about their affair. Scott also sold letters to the press which he claimed to be love letters from Thorpe; one of these included the memorable line "Bunnies can and will go to France", which supposedly showed Thorpe using his 'pet-name' for Scott in connection with a promise to find Scott a well-paid job in France. The scandal led to Thorpe resigning as leader of the Liberal Party on 9 May 1976. He was replaced temporarily by his predecessor, the former Leader Jo Grimond and then on a permanent basis by David Steel.

Upon his release from prison in April 1977, Andrew Newton revived the scandal by claiming that he had been hired as a hit-man to kill Norman Scott. On 4 August 1978, Thorpe was accused along with David Holmes (deputy Treasurer of the Liberal Party), George Deakin (a night club owner) and John Le Mesurier (a carpet tycoon, neither the Dad's Army actor nor thewell-known GB athletics coach of the 1950s/60s) of conspiracy to murder. Thorpe was also separately accused of inciting Holmes to murder Scott.

Thorpe's political career could not withstand the scandal, and he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election of 1979. His trial had been scheduled to take place a week before polling day, but he successfully applied for a fortnight's delay to fight the election, and then stood trial a week after losing his seat.

At the election, journalist Auberon Waugh tried to stand as leader of the Dog Lovers' Party, but this was ruled facetious. After the acquittal, a punk group, Rex Barker and the Ricochets, produced a 45 rpm record, Jeremy

Innocent. It consisted of the refrain "Jeremy, Jeremy" punctuated by samples of gunfire and a barking dog.