What was the Bunnies letter and why did Jeremy Thorpe use the nickname for Norman Scott?
Thorpe and Scott’s gay affair took place at a time when homosexuality was banned in the UK
DETAILS of the gay affair between disgraced British politician Jeremy Thorpe and young male model Norman Scott have been documented in BBC drama ‘A Very English Scandal’.
Episode one of the three-part series revealed how Thorpe had a nickname for his young lover.
Who are Jeremy Thorpe and Norman Scott?
Jeremy Thorpe was the MP for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and served as the leader of the Liberal Party between 1967-1976.
In May 1979 Thorpe was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder, arising from an earlier homosexual relationship with Norman Scott, a former model.
Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the case and the furore surrounding it saw his political career come to an end.
Norman Scott was the former stable hand turned model at the centre of the Jeremy Thorpe affair.
The pair first met in 1960 when Scott was just 19, and went on to have a secret, sordid relationship.
What was their relationship like?
Scott claimed Thorpe made him dependent on him, paying his rent, giving him money and turning up at all hours of the day for sex.
He added that he was emotionally and verbally abused by Thorpe on a regular basis and was forced to take part in group orgies with Swedish sailors and other men the politician would pick up from the streets of London.
For Scott there seemed to be no escape, not least because he did not have his National Insurance card, which he needed to get a job.
While the relationship ended in 1964, Scott found himself thrust into the public eye in 1975 after a plot to murder him went wrong.
What was Thorpe’s nickname for Scott and what did he write in letters to him?
Throughout their affair, Thorpe wrote to Scott on House of Commons headed paper.
He referred to his younger lover as “Bunnies” which, according to the BBC drama, stemmed from their first sexual liaison when Thorpe asked Scott: “Are you my little bunny?”
The most famous letter, written in April 1962, showed Thorpe persuading Scott to apply for a job in France.
He wrote: “Bunnies can (and will) go to France”, and enclosed travel documentation.
Once relations had soured, Scott, who was psychologically frail, took two of the letters to the police, declaring his then-illegal homosexual relationship with Thorpe.
The letters were then handed over to MI5.
Was it legal to be homosexual at the time of the affair?
Thorpe and Scott’s gay affair took place at a time when homosexuality was banned – the pair were engaged in a relationship from 1960 until 1964.
Before the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, all sexual activity between men was illegal throughout the United Kingdom, and carried heavy criminal penalties.
The 1967 Act decriminalised most homosexual acts in England and Wales but did not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Political figures were particularly vulnerable to exposure and went to lengths to keep their private lives private.
William Field, the Labour MP for Paddington North, was forced to resign his seat in 1953 after a conviction for soliciting in a public lavatory.
The following year, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu – the youngest peer in the House of Lords – was imprisoned for a year after being convicted of "gross indecency" despite keeping his homosexual affairs out of the public eye.
When Ian Harvey, a junior Foreign Office minister in Harold Macmillan's government, was found guilty of indecent behaviour with a Coldstream Guardsman in November 1958, he lost both his ministerial job and his parliamentary seat at Harrow East.
He was ostracised by the Conservative Party and by most of his former friends, and never again held a position in public life.
Anyone entering politics at that time knew that revelations of homosexual activity would likely bring such a career to a swift end.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.