Jeremy Thorpe after discovery by the "Daily Mail". Bessell gave muddled accounts of his involvement with Scott, but insisted that his former chief was innocent of any wrongdoing. On 16 March 1976 Newton's trial began at Exeter Crown Court, where Scott repeated his allegations against Thorpe despite the efforts of the prosecution's lawyers to silence him. Newton was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but did not incriminate Thorpe. The erosion of public support for the Liberal Party continued with several poor by-election results in March, which the former leader Grimond attributed to increasing lack of confidence in Thorpe. On
Jeremy Thorpe by Terrance Dicks, both Liberal supporters, has an unseen, offscreen British Prime Minister named "Jeremy", which was intended by the production team as a reference to Thorpe. In 2009, the BBC attempted to film a TV biopic of Thorpe's life, slated to star Rupert Everett in the title role, but this was subsequently abandoned after legal threats from Thorpe. "A Very English Scandal", a true crime non-fiction novel covering the Thorpe/Scott affair, by John Preston, was published on 5 May 2016 by Viking Press. The book was described as "a political thriller, with urgent dialogue, well-staged scenes, escalating tension and