AN independent inquiry is to be held into claims that evidence was tampered with during the police probe into former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe in the 1970s.

It is alleged that a witness statement was altered during the police investigation.

Avon and Somerset Police have asked another police force to undertake the inquiry and the Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed.

Mr Thorpe, who died aged 85 last year, was cleared of conspiring to murder male model Norman Scott on Exmoor in 1979.

The case against the then North Devon MP started in Minehead.

Rumours had been rife that married father Thorpe and Scott were lovers from 1961, when homosexuality was illegal.

The trial heard that former airline pilot Andrew Newton had been hired to kill Scott to stop him making claims of a relationship with Thorpe.

Newton, it was claimed in court, lost his nerve and shot Scott's dog instead.

Although Thorpe was cleared, his political career was ruined and he spent the last years of his life in North Devon suffering ill health.