Barrymore 10 years on from the killing of Stuart Lubbock

by **Tony Bennett** Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:16 am

'Barrysnore' - article and video on the home page today of http://www.people.co.uk/

Not very pretty, but a gruesome reminder of the death of Stuart Lubbock on 1 April 2001 at Michael Barrymore's home.

Today's 'People' article concludes by referring to Stuart Lubbock as 'having been found dead in the star's swimming pool'.

No he wasn't.

The evidence was that he was killed by a violent sexual assault - and then had a bucket of water thrown over him to make it look like a drowning. In fact he was never in the swimming pool that night. Barrymore legged it and told the other 7 party-goers to tell police he wasn't there that evening.

The drowning story was a very clever hoax.

by Advocatus Mon Jan 09, 2012 8:55 pm

Mr Barry-MORE and MORE seems to thinks this is acceptable. Is he being protected? Look at the facts.

by Guest Mon Jan 09, 2012 9:13 pm

Hi and welcome Advocatus. welcome

The article in the above link Tony posted seems to have disappeared, or is it me? In any case I have deleted the last part of the thread title.

by Advocatus Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:02 pm

candyfloss wrote:Hi and welcome Advocatus.

The article in the above link Tony posted seems to have disappeared, or is it me? In any case I have deleted the last part of the thread title.

Hello candyfloss. Good to be here.

This is the dreadful article:

http://www.people.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2012/01/01/shamed-barrymore-crashes-out-after-snorting-frenzy-102039-23670932/

by **PeterMac** Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:06 pm

The gutter press still have an important role to play. What a pity they are not playing it to the full.

by **tigger** Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:12 pm

PeterMac wrote:The gutter press still have an important role to play. What a pity they are not playing it to the full.

What amazes me is how easily these 'public' figures are found in compromising situations. The Duchess of York, (for goodness sake the sheikh wasn't that good an actor), Barrymore, George Michael caught 'cottaging' on film, and so on. Do they think they're made of Teflon?
(Not to mention Lord Bell..)

by Guest Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:37 pm

While taking the article with an enormous pinch of salt, it certainly doesn't look as if Mr B has any plans to grow old gracefully!

Tigger: unless I'm getting confused (certainly won't be the first time) I think the fake sheikh was connected to Sophie, Duchess of Wessex.

Some people alas (Tony Blair for starters and yes the McCanns) are definitely Teflon coated while lesser mortals are thrown to the mercy of the media.

by **tigger** Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:43 pm

Jean wrote:While taking the article with an enormous pinch of salt, it certainly doesn't look as if Mr B has any plans to grow old gracefully!

Tigger: unless I'm getting confused (certainly won't be the first time) I think the fake sheikh was connected to Sophie, Duchess of Wessex.

Some people alas (Tony Blair for starters and yes the McCanns) are definitely Teflon coated while lesser mortals are thrown to the mercy of the media.

No, definitely, it's on video, may not have worn a djelabah, but said he was something or other sheikh looking for an 'in' with Prince Andrew.

by Guest Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:51 pm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-390982/Sophies-fake-sheik-PR-firm-goes-bust.html

I do now recall the other story relating to the Yorks.

P.S. Another link to a story at the time of the sting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/apr/08/uk.news

by **tigger** Sat Dec 29, 2012 1:35 pm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254489/Michael-Barrymore-Fallen-TV-star-admits-came-close-killing-branded-murderer.html
Michael Barrymore is dead': Fallen TV star admits he came close to killing himself after body was found in his swimming pool as he gives first interview for ten years
By ANNA EDWARDS
PUBLISHED: 10:23 GMT, 29 December 2012 | UPDATED: 10:48 GMT, 29 December 2012
Comments (70)
Share

Michael Barrymore says his TV personality is dead after years of being harangued by the press
Tormented television presenter Michael Barrymore has 'killed' his stage personality after years of being persecuted by the press.
The former 'Strike It Lucky' star revealed how he reached rock bottom and came close to killing himself after being branded a murderer when a man was found dead in his swimming pool.
The comedian said he felt he had been slowly murdered by the tabloid press and said that although it was too late to take action against the articles written about him, he is bringing cases for phone hacking. what

Perhaps we should suggest setting up a Fund for this poor innocent lamb? Barrymore and his like will only ever see the world as owing them, big time. :puke:

by **tigger** Sat Dec 29, 2012 1:40 pm

The last seven comments:

Shut up and go away Barrymore we're not interested in your self pity. What about the family of the man who died - they must've gone through hell. Me me me me me...
- Lisa , BOURNEMOUTH, United Kingdom, 29/12/2012 11:58

I have no sympathy.
- Captain Hurricane , Wallasey, United Kingdom, 29/12/2012 11:58

He is lucky to be in the position he is in!
- Philip , Cameron Promised Us A Referendum On The EU And Lied. It Is UKIP For Me Now!, 29/12/2012 11:57

If he has killed off his alter ego, why is he doing interviews?
- Dawn , Glasgow, United Kingdom, 29/12/2012 11:57

Must be getting short of funds Mr barrymore otherwise you wouldn't keep dredging this up. let sleeping dogs lie, it can't be nice for the mans family to have you keep going over it just to stay in that last sliver of limelight you may still have. Let it go you career is over.
- Kit-Kat-Lil , Mansfield, United Kingdom, 29/12/2012 11:57

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254489/Michael-Barrymore-Fallen-TV-star-admits-came-close-killing-branded-murderer.html#ixzz2GRb0UB6P
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by **Tony Bennett** Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:58 pm

This story has appeared in the Independent today. I will highlight a few short passages in blue, and then make a few comments at the end:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Michael Barrymore: I’m an alcoholic and have had my problems. But I never murdered anyone. I was set up.

By Martin Hickman - Independent, 29 December 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/michael-barrymore-im-an-alcoholic-and-have-had-my-problems-but-i-never-murdered-anyone-i-was-set-up-8432887.html

From his tough background to the wealth and fame of Saturday night television, the struggles with his homosexuality, alcoholism and drug addiction, the nine rehabs, and the death of a young man in his swimming pool, Michael Barrymore's life has been freakishly turbulent.

Clean of drink and drugs for a year and with his vitriolic tabloid tormentors in retreat, he can now reflect on the ups and downs of his life.

At his peak he was one of television's most bankable stars, had a multimillion-pound contract, a mansion and an impulsively-bought collection of 17 luxury cars. At his nadir, suspected of murder by the police and drinking heavily, he came close to committing suicide.

Standing in the kitchen of his apartment in Acton, west London, giving his first in-depth interview to a national newspaper for 10 years, he says: "I'm just grateful I came through."

He admits he has not been blameless, and regrets his alcoholism and the suppression of his homosexuality, which burst into the public domain when he announced "I'm gay," from the stage of an East End pub in 1995.

But he wants to get even with the newspapers he blames for prematurely ending his television career.

From false allegations of sexual assault to the lurid coverage of the death of Stuart Lubbock in his swimming pool, the comedian has been the subject of an extraordinary volume of negative headlines.

Looking back, he believes he was the victim of a press vendetta partly motivated by his aloofness towards the redtops (he rarely gave interviews) – and partly orchestrated by his former wife and manager, Cheryl, whom he acrimoniously divorced in 1998.

He also suspects that newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, whose parent company News Corp controls the rival Sky TV network, had a commercial motive in targeting him. "It smacks me that there was a definite conspiracy to destroy ITV's main brand at the time: 'We want to get rid of anything that works for them'.

"I never shy away from the fact that I'm an alcoholic and that I have had my problems, but I've never murdered anybody. I've never got up in the morning and thought I'll harm someone. I've just had an extraordinary sequence of events that have been on public display, that I've had no control over."

He adds: "[The press] killed Michael Barrymore. My [real] name is Michael Parker, but Michael Barrymore is dead. Although I have been a couple of times to the jumping-off point, I didn't kill myself. If I had, it would have completed the story."

Born on the Dickens Estate in Bermondsey in 1952, to an alcoholic father, he rose steadily through showbusiness, adopting the stage name Barrymore and taking elocution lessons to eliminate his strong south London accent.

He had always had homosexual leanings, but thought that would end his marriage to the dancer Cheryl St Claire. The gangly comic, whose career was masterminded by his wife, became prime-time Saturday night property for a decade, presenting Strike It Lucky, Barrymore and other shows, but was unhappy at his carefully choreographed life. He and Cheryl divorced on Friday, 8 May 1998 – when his troubles with the press began.

The following morning, an editor from the News of the World called his flat in London's Docklands to say he was alleged to have carried out a serious sexual assault.

The previous night a man who had tried to engage the star in conversation claimed he had been raped in the toilets of a Soho nightclub, Brief Encounter. The News of the World's front-page that Sunday was: "Barrymore accused of sex assault... Scotland Yard is probing bombshell allegations that TV idol Michael Barrymore carried out an indecent assault on a young man."

Barrymore is convinced the allegation was a plot to discredit him.

The News of the World, which had close links to the police, certainly found out about the complaint quickly, picturing the detectives' entry to the club on the Saturday morning within hours of the attack allegedly taking place.

Yet the police did not interview the star until the following Wednesday, when he himself rang the detectives to ask why they had not contacted him. No arrests were made or charges brought and, in 2000, the News of the World admitted the allegation had been "without foundation" and paid Barrymore substantial damages.

He believes there was "a conspiracy to set me up" and that the paper may have known the allegation was bogus at the time the story was printed.

The Independent has spoken to a witness who was in a house in Ealing, west London, with several others when the complainant returned home about 11pm that night.

Bryan Purchase, a pawnbroker from Peacehaven, near Brighton, said: "You would think he would be subdued or crying, or he would be angry, and neither of those things happened. He made this drama, said he had been raped by Michael Barrymore and then he came back downstairs. None of us took it seriously. If I thought it had happened I would think: 'Well, that's possible', but I don't think it happened at all."

Another witness – who, like Mr Purchase, has signed a sworn statement about the events of that night – believed the complainant had been paid £50,000 by the News of the World.

News International declined to comment. So did the Metropolitan Police, except to say it did not receive a formal complaint about its investigation.

Barrymore was the subject of another false allegation of sexual assault four years later, again an "exclusive" in the News of the World. On 1 December 2002, its front page was: "Barrymore in new sex attack probe." Barrymore had invited a man, Lee O'Brien, into a home because he had travelled all the way from Liverpool to see him. O'Brien had made up the claim and was later convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Over the years the tabloids ran scores of dubious and intrusive stories, including a front-page picture of Barrymore weeping at his mother's funeral.

However, the most damaging came when Stuart Lubbock, a 31-year-old meat factory worker, was found dead in Barrymore's swimming pool at his mansion in Essex in May 2001.

Essex Police began a murder investigation. The redtops went into a frenzy. Justin Merritt, a dustman from Essex, claimed the star had rubbed cocaine on Stuart's lips shortly before he died; Merritt repeated the claim under oath at the inquest, where he admitted the News of the World had paid him £30,000.

On 22 September 2002, the Sunday Mirror pictured Barrymore on the front page next to the headline: You Are a Killer, without even the customary quotation marks.

Cheryl Barrymore, assisted by Max Clifford, the publicist, gave interviews contradicting Barrymore's insistence that he could not swim and branded him a "psychopath". (No pictures have been found of him swimming.)

His television career – which had been flourishing despite his drinking – was wrecked; the ITV executives who had courted him stopped taking his calls and cancelled his contract.

To this day, many people have a lurking suspicion that Barrymore was in some way responsible for Lubbock's death, but two police inquiries and an inquest have found no evidence that was the case. He said he had been smoking cannabis in a side room at the time of the death.

Newspapers enthusiastically reported that Mr Lubbock had received serious anal injuries, which one pathologist said were consistent with a sexual assault. However, the first pathologist to examine the body at 4.30pm that day believed the injuries had been caused only four hours before the post-mortem when the body was lying unguarded. The injuries were not noticed by the police who arrived at Barrymore's mansion, nor by the medical staff who tried to resuscitate him.

Stuart Nairn, a nurse who took Lubbock's temperature anally 16 times, wrote in his statement that he saw "nothing untoward or unusual". Another member of the resuscitation team, Dr Hirani, said: "At no time did I ever see any injuries, or blood." Another, Dr Raymon, wrote: "At no time did I see any noticeable injury to him."

Barrymore said: "There's eight people at a house, there's no blood, nobody saw anybody injuring him. Two paramedics, two coppers see nothing, eight people in the resuscitation team see nothing." Barrymore believes the injuries were caused by persons unknown at the hospital when the body was unguarded.

Even so, the inquest returned an open verdict in 2003 and the police never charged Barrymore or anyone else with murder. "It was just a party that went disastrously wrong, with a tragic ending. I've basically been framed for a murder – one that didn't take place."

In the aftermath of the drowning, Barrymore and his then partner Shaun Davis escaped the press interest by moving to New Zealand. Barrymore returned in 2006 to appear in Celebrity Big Brother and was seeking to re-establish his career when he was arrested by Essex Police in June 2007 on suspicion of murder and serious sexual assault. Again, no charges followed.

Barrymore – who suspects that in 2001 and 2007 the police were responding to "press pressure" – said: "I'm getting myself back on track and it was effectively wiped out again. Originally they cautioned me for use of marijuana. Five days later they release me with no caution. The Superintendent goes on Sky and all the others and says: 'The murder investigation continues.' And no investigation has been continued. Effectively, it was a show arrest."

Whatever the truth of the press treatment of him, he remains of intense interest to the media. Sixty photographers and journalists gathered outside Ealing magistrate's court last December when he was fined £780 for possessing a small amount of cocaine after crashing his car. Since then he has taken part in another alcohol recovery programme and believes that this time he will stay free of drink and drugs.

While he can no longer bring cases against the articles written about him because they are "out of time", he is bringing cases for phone hacking.

He said: "What always amazes me is that you can sit down and plot the destruction of a human being and not think you're murdering them slowly, because effectively they tried to. They had their hands on my throat and... were trying to choke me."

He has regrets – particularly about how he treated his wife, who died of cancer in 2005. "Nobody's written a book on how to handle fame, or the downside of it. We loved each other. I loved her, and she loved me too much."

In general, though, he is at peace. "I'm never not going to be an alcoholic and an addict, but I haven't got myself well to be in the corner living in pity. I don't have a list of things I want. Maybe because I've been bashed and bullied for so long.

"I'm just pleased that I've survived and that I have got a peaceful enough place to be able to deal with everything. It's got to the point where I can now sit in the ordinariness of a day.

"I don't have to be Michael Barrymore – he's dead. I don't have to do what I've been doing since I was eight, which is making people laugh to deflect things. It's the first time I've ever got to know me and I was 60 in May."

How tabloids ran bogus allegations

Michael Barrymore has accused the tabloid press of destroying his career by running a decade-long campaign of malicious stories including bogus allegations of sexual assault and murder.

The former entertainer says he is ready to confront the negative stories which culminated in him losing his multimillion-pound contract with ITV.

He claims he has been “framed” by the press over the death of a man, Stuart Lubbock, found floating in his swimming pool in 2001. He also says he suspects he fell victim to a “conspiracy” to fabricate an earlier allegation in the News of the World that he raped a rent boy in the toilets of a nightclub in central London. Evidence from medical staff support his claims over the timing of injuries sustained by Mr Lubbock.

The News of the World’s owner, News International, has agreed to pay 60-year-old “substantial damages” for his breach of privacy claim for phone hacking. He says of the press: “They killed Michael Barrymore.”

Striking it (un)lucky career highs and lows

4 May 1952 Born Michael Parker in Bermondsey, London

1969 At 16, the aspiring comic becomes a redcoat at Butlins.

1974 Meets and later marries dancer Cheryl St Claire who becomes his manager.

1979 Wins TV show New Faces

1986 Picked to host new ITV game show Strike It Rich (later Strike It Lucky).

1991 Launches variety vehicle Barrymore. It is voted 'best entertainment show' at first National Television Awards.

1995 Leaves Cheryl and comes out as gay.

1998 Divorces Cheryl on the same weekend he is falsely accused of raping a man at a club. The News of the World later apologises for its story.

2001 Stuart Lubbock dies in pool at Barrymore's home in Roydon, Essex, and murder inquiry is launched. No charges are brought but ITV cancels his contract.

2002 Coroner records open verdict on Mr Lubbock's death.

2005 Cheryl, 55, dies of lung cancer. A judge rejects Lubbock family's private prosecution of Barrymore.

2006 Runner-up on Celebrity Big Brother.

2007 Detectives re-arrest Barrymore and two others on suspicion of Lubbock murder. No charges are brought.

2011 Caught with cocaine after car crash. Enters rehab for a ninth time.

2012 Brings phone-hacking case against the News of the World.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Comments:

My book on the case demonstrated that Stuart Lubbock was never in the swimming pool that night. The police could have proved this conclusively by performing a diatom test on the pool water that night. They failed to do so.

The electrically-operated cover to the swimming pool was opened after Stuart Lubbock died at about 4.30am to 5.00am.

The ambulance was called by Justin Merritt at 5.46am by which time Lubbock was already dead. I suggest he had been placed on the side of the pool as part of the 'drowning hoax'. In all probability, just before Barrymore and his friends 'phoned the ambulance, a bucket of water was thrown over him and water forced down his throat in order to simulate a drowning.

The first pathologist, the now thoroughly-discredited Dr Michael John Heath, claimed this was a drowning. The other three pathologists essentially agreed on the following:

1. He showed tell-tale signs of asphyxiation (i.e. petechiae) not drowning
2. He had suffered a violent sexual assault to his anus, with an implement having been used
3. He had suffered a heart attack.

The police did not, contrary to Hickman's article, see Luubbock at the house. The police arrived only after the ambulance had taken him to hospital.

Barrymore's partner at the time was not Shaun Davis. He had ditched him for violent drag queen Jonathan Kenney, one of the three jointly arrested on suspicion of murder in June 2007.

The timeline above entirely leaves out my own involvement in the case, which in summary was:

* to attempt a private prosecution of Barrymore in respect of drugs and other offences that night. It failed
* preparing an 80-page dossier on the case, based on police and inquest reports, handed to Essex Police in August 2006, as a result of which they recommenced a full investigation
* complaints by me of misconduct against Essex Police - upheld by the IPCC in 2008
* securing an award of compensation for Stuart Lubbock's father, £5,500, after Essex police conceded that it was more likely than not that he had died through a crime of violence.

The re-arrest of Michael Barrymore was achieved at least partly by a lot of detailed analytical work I carried out on the case in 2006 and handed to Essex Police. Martin Hickman is trying to bury the truth of what really happened to Stuart Lubbock that night.

by **tigger** Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:50 pm

From the Mail: Tormented television presenter Michael Barrymore has 'killed' his stage personality after years of being persecuted by the press.
unquote

'Freakishly turbulent' from the Independent.

Both descriptions give the impression of events having 'happened' to Barrymore, tormented, turbulent make him look like a victim of fate. Victimhood is something Barrymore seems to be claiming here.

He has paraded his homosexuality as if he was nailed to a cross. I do get more than somewhat bored by this type - curiously one never hears lesbians complain in the same way. Lots of people are homo- rather than heterosexual. Certainly in the entertainment world no career problem.

Now he's blaming his ex-wife for the bad publicity (hope she sues him, attagirl Cheryl!) clearly nothing he has ever done or said has any bearing on his present position. Which is still much better than it could have been had justice prevailed imo.

If he's going to do something about the phone hacking, he'll be in good company, I recommend 'Hacked off'' Mr. Barrymore, you'll feel right at home there.
Not that he was called to give evidence in the Leveson enquiry.
If he is short of money, one has to ask why, since at the time of the 'accident' he was extremely well off.
The newspapers have already paid him, so suing them again is a waste of time.

by Guest Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:53 pm

Tigger, Cheryl Barrymore died in 2005.

The mystery to me is how anyone ever found Michael's act entertaining; a lot of people did though.

A clip for anyone who hasn't seen it of his behaviour when Susan Boyle appeared on his show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5sFowfXKO0

by **Tony Bennett** Sat Dec 29, 2012 6:23 pm

tigger wrote:Now he's blaming his ex-wife for the bad publicity (hope she sues him, attagirl Cheryl!)...

Yes, just to add this from Wikipedia:

Death

After her split with Barrymore, Cheryl's health suffered. In 2003 she suffered a burst ulcer, and in late 2004 she was investigated for Chronic fatigue syndrome, when she complained of feeling unwell.^[9]

On 1 April 2005, Cheryl Barrymore died, aged 55, at St John and St Elizabeth Hospital in St John's Wood, having been diagnosed with lung cancer just six weeks earlier. ^[13]

Cheryl Barrymore died in fact on the fourth anniversary of Stuart Lubbock's murder at aorund 4.30pm to 5pm on 1 April 2001.

by **tigger** Sat Dec 29, 2012 6:27 pm

Tony Bennett wrote:
tigger wrote:Now he's blaming his ex-wife for the bad publicity (hope she sues him, attagirl Cheryl!)...
Yes, just to add this from Wikipedia:

Death

After her split with Barrymore, Cheryl's health suffered. In 2003 she suffered a burst ulcer, and in late 2004 she was investigated for Chronic fatigue syndrome, when she complained of feeling unwell.^[9]

On 1 April 2005, Cheryl Barrymore died, aged 55, at St John and St Elizabeth Hospital in St John's Wood, having been diagnosed with lung cancer just six weeks earlier. ^[13]

Cheryl Barrymore died in fact on the fourth anniversary of Stuart Lubbock's murder at aorund 4.30pm to 5pm on 1 April 2001.

.... and he has no trouble blaming her for his 'misfortunes'. That's really low.

Besides, I understand she was his agent as well as his wife and he had her to thank for having a career at all.

by littlepixie Sat Dec 29, 2012 10:29 pm

Whether it is true or not I don't know, but I'm sure I read that Barrymore used to drug Cheryl without her knowledge so he could go out with his boyfriend.

by Guest Sat Dec 29, 2012 11:09 pm

I think I'd take that with a pinch of salt but there certainly were claims that he was violent towards his ex-wife.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/celebrity/i-feared-barrymore-would-kill-me-1-1377849