Enquiries led to Thorpe and three others being charged with conspiracy to murder Scott. During the investigation, an antique firearms collector, Dennis Meighan, confessed he had been hired by a representative of a person called "a Mr Big in the Liberal Party" to kill Scott for £13,500. Meighan later claimed that his 1975 oral confession was significantly shortened when it was offered to him for signing: "I read the statement, which did me no end of favours, but it did Jeremy Thorpe no end of favours as well, because it left him completely out of it..." 