RedHanded - Episode 341 - Michael Barrymore & The Death of Stuart Lubbock

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Found dead and with severe internal injuries in the swimming pool of the UK’s biggest TV star, Stuart Lubbock’s tragic demise became an instant tabloid sensation.Michael Barrymore’s handling of the tragedy left a lot to be desired – as did the conduct of the British press. But what really happened the night Lubbock died, and who was responsible?Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus ContentFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comYouTubeRedHandedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome to a episode of Red Hunter's. I was trying to think of how to phrase that it is an anniversary episode. Yes. Because this Sunday will mark 23 years to the day since 31-year-old Stuart Lubbock was found dead in the swimming pool of one of the UK's biggest TV stars at the time. This case became a story that epitomised the very definition of tabloid sensationalism here in this country. Along with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, this case was one of the most widely reported news stories of noughties Britain. And to say that Michael Barrymore,

the TV star in question, had a fall from grace has to be the understatement of the century. So how did a meat factory worker from Essex end up dead in the pool of British TV royalty, having sustained some pretty grisly injuries? Well, it's still very much up for debate over 20 years later. But before we can even come close to working out what may have happened, first we need some context. Lots of British context. In the 90s, Michael Barrymore was Saturday Night TV.

In fact, he was actually known as Mr Saturday Night. He was on everything. Barrymore hosted the biggest game shows, talk shows and talent shows on TV from the early 80s until the night of Stuart Lubbock's death in 2001. And Barrymore was easily one of the UK's highest paid stars. His forte was crowd work. Audiences loved Michael Barrymore and he loved them back. He described the watching British public as his kind of people and he wasn't wrong. Barrymore was brash, charming and charismatic. He was born Michael Parker in

1952 in Bermondsey, South East London. His father left and never came back when Michael Barrymore was just 11. So that meant that Michael Barrymore and his siblings were left in the care of his devoutly Catholic mother. What remained of the Parker family, which is Barrymore's real second name remember, lived on a council estate for the first 18 years of his life. Like many British entertainers, Barrymore got his start as a red coat at the British holiday park Butlins. Now if you're not from the UK then you may not be familiar with the British institution that is Butlins. Have you ever been to a Butlins Anna? I have never been to a Butlins. Nor have I actually. I think the first time I saw a Butlins advertised was on some seaside holiday and it was

like the Butlins and Bognor Regis and I just thought that was very funny. That's the most famous one. Yes and it's very funny. Butlins, Bognor Regis. It's just you know the jokes are too easy. But yeah what you need to know is that it is the UK's largest chain of holiday parks. And the redcoats are entertainers. Yeah exactly. So Butlins was founded in 1936 and up until the rise of cheap flights to Benidorm in the 70s, it was the go-to destination for any working-class holiday makers. And a big part of the Butlin's experience, and what made it so special, was the iconic Redcoats. Equal parts park staff and entertainers,

it was the Redcoats' job to make sure the park ran smoothly, and they would perform every night as part of Butlin's iconic evening entertainment. This is where Barrymore got his taste for the stage, and from there, it was up and up. By 1974, aged 22, Barrymore was appearing in supporting roles across the West End. And it was there that he met his soon-to-be wife and manager, with the most fake-sounding name I've ever heard, Cheryl St. Clair. It sounds like a stage name. I don't know if it is her real

name or not, but Cheryl St. Clair. And Cheryl Cheryl Sinclair soon became the driving force behind Barrymore's career and landed him a gig on the TV talent show New Faces did you ever watch that was that your era pre pre yeah the only thing I remember from late 90s early 2000s Saturday night is Blind Date yes yes I think Blind Date was probably our earliest, like, entry. Stars in the Rise, Blind Date. Yeah. Speaking of a fall from grace. Oh, and Noel Edmonds' House Party.

Again, fall from grace. Yeah. I also enjoyed Family Fortunes. That was great. Yeah. Les Dennis is fine, isn't he? Isn't he? Who?

Les Dennis is fine, isn't he? Yeah. I met him at the podcast show a couple of years ago. Do you remember? Oh, yeah. I think he's fine. Everyone's just like, ugh, Amanda Holden. Is he married to Amanda Holden? He used to be married to Amanda Holden, yeah.

I'm just... This is too much. That's the reason she's famous. This is too much information. And anyway, moving on before we lose all of our non-UK listeners. The premise of New Faces was to find Britain's next TV personality. And for Michael Barrymore, it was the perfect opportunity. His strong South London accent and working class background

made Barrymore an approachable face for the public, and we love those in this country. Look at Jimmy Savile. And Michael Barrymore's act was as if everyone's favourite charismatic joker from the local pub had somehow found his way onto primetime TV. The charming, quick-witted and likeable Barrymore won the show and in 1975 was booked as the new regular panelist on Blankety Blank, one of Britain's most popular game shows. Blankety Blank I did watch. So from here, Michael

Barrymore got booked as the warm-up act on The Generation Game and audiences fell in love with his impressions of John cleese and norman wisdom i mean does it get any more british light entertainment than that no silver black only exceeds that i think exactly so over the next few years barrymore slowly became a household name across britain until eventually in 1983 he was offered the Michael Barrymore Show on ITV. And just in case, again, you are not a UK listener, ITV is Channel 3 in this country. Whatever sort of home set-up TV you've got, everybody gets 1, 2, 3 and 4. So he's hit the big time here.

Now you might think getting your own show would have been a dream gig for Barrymore. But he actually left the show after just one season to take a much higher paid gig on a new game show for the BBC no less of course the BBC the BBC were like he looks like he's gonna end up doing something terrible in the future let's hire him at first it did seem like this was set to backfire when Get Set Go, the show that Barrymore had jumped ship for, was cancelled after just one season. However, in a move that would be the story of his early career and the opposite of what came after, Barrymore landed on his feet. In 1986, Michael Barrymore was offered his big break as the host of Strike It Lucky, ITV's hit new game show. I don't think you see the station hopping that you used to get in the 80s and 90s. I feel like everyone's a loyalist these days.

By contract, obviously. At its peak, Strike It Lucky pulled in 18 million viewers an episode from living rooms across the UK. The population of the UK during that time was about 57 million so that means almost one in three people in the UK had nothing better to do on a Saturday night than watch Strike It Lucky. Yeah I think it would be hard to be as hugely successful and have that level of celebrity now just being a game show host. I agree. Like Barrymore was because at the time the reason one in three people in Britain were watching it

is because there was fuck all else to watch. It's not like you had endless streaming services like you do now, which completely, you know, splinters the audience and therefore for one person to capture that level of viewership would be next to impossible. Barrymore is very much a product of his time in that regard as an entertainer. So Barrymore also became a mainstay of the Royal Variety Show, another British institution. I feel like that's what I remember him for the most. I feel like this all predates me a little bit. I feel like I know Barrymore from,

I don't know, maybe Strike It Lucky? I don't know. I don't know. I can't. I can't confirm. So yeah, he is absolutely integral to the Royal Variety Show. And in case you don't know what that is, the show has a very simple premise. It's a variety show performed for the Royal Family, and it's been running since 1912, with performances from the likes of The Beatles, Cher and Cliff Richard. In 1993, it was headlined for the third time by none other than Michael Barrymore. So this tells you the sort of levels that he's playing in already by the 90s. And it was here that Michael Barrymore stole the show with his rendition of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, accompanied by serving members of the King's Regiment, performing a choreographed drill routine.

Not exactly Cher, but it was the jewel in Barrymore's King of TV crown. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, I think is in my top five most hated songs of all time. I was going to say, handing over to our cultural correspondent on all things British in the 80s. I just find it such an insipid fucking... Well, the Royals loved it. And the performance was considered

a masterpiece of emotion, humour and British pride. And this cemented Michael Barrymore as the pinnacle of British light entertainment. And it was at this time, the peak of Barrymore's career, that things started to look a little bit shaky. In 1994, like many a star before and since, Michael Barrymore checked himself into rehab. His time at the top had taken his toll and Barrymore had developed a pretty serious dependency on alcohol and cocaine. Again though, Barrymore came out on top. In the eyes of the British public, this made him more relatable and more likeable. Barrymore had always been one of them. He wasn't squeaky clean, he was brash and inappropriate, whilst

also being charming and talented. He was flawed, but also brilliant. In other words, Michael Barrymore, temporarily, joined the ranks of Britain's most lovable rogues. People look to him like they now look at Paul Gascoigne or perhaps Amy Winehouse, or I would argue, Anne McPartlin. Who? Anne Deck. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is he lovable though? I don't know. Well, he got away with fucking drink driving. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is he lovable, though? I don't know. He got away with fucking drink driving. No one cared.

That's true. They were right back on fucking Saturday Night Takeaway, wasn't he? You're right. You're right. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media.

To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life.

I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding. And this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Anyway, Michael Barrymore. Although he had fallen slightly from grace and had admitted to having addiction and substance abuse issues,

he still remained a British national treasure. So off the back of his stint in rehab,rymore published a book and launched a stage show both called back in business they landed well with the public and his book actually became a national bestseller all the while barrymore's tv schedule continued he was still the face of strike it lucky which actually rebranded to michael barrymore's strike it Rich. So yeah, he becomes that integral to the show that they actually give it to him as his own show. Like, he is now irreplaceable. He even got his own show, Barrymore,

and various other gigs, like Kids Say the Funniest Things. However, while his stint in rehab hadn't damaged his TV ratings, it had put him on the radar of our final British institution for this episode. Like blood in the water, Rehab had given the British tabloids a taste of Michael Barrymore. Whether it was cocaine benders or questions about his sexuality, Barrymore sold stories, and the press couldn't get enough. And in 1995, the tabloids got the scoop that they had been dreaming of.

When a drunk Michael Barrymore jumped on a stage at a well-known London gay club, threw his wedding ring from Cheryl St. Clair on the floor and announced that he was in fact gay. The story was headline news and cameras followed Barrymore day and night. A year later, Barrymore and Cheryl St. Clair, his manager and wife of 20 years, officially separated, although they remained very close. Again, Michael Barrymore managed to ride the media frenzy. His ratings stayed high and the British public seemed to love him even more. He won Britain's Most Popular Presenter at the National Television Awards five out of six years in a row. And then in 1997, he got the biggest honour of them all,

appearing as Mr Step in the iconic Spice Girls feature film, Spice World, which I saw in the cinema in Watford. By the year 2000, Michael Barrymore was truly British TV royalty. Not a day went by that he wasn't either on the nation's screens or on the front pages of our newspapers. His now openly gay lifestyle was the gift that kept on giving for the tabloids, who loved nothing more than to follow him around the London gay scene, snapping pictures of him falling out of clubs at 3am with his latest boyfriend.

But then, on 31st March 2001, Michael Barrymore's life went from this... It's not a rabbit down there as well, is it? I don't know. I don't know. There it is. What did you put it down there for? I can put it anywhere I want to. To this. What are you doing? I'm trying to find the fault. Sorry?

A fella's drowned in the fault. I'll do a fill in the water. No, we've got them out. Do you know where they are? to this. That Sunday morning, Britain woke to the news that a 31-year-old man called Stuart Lubbock had been found dead in Michael Barrymore's swimming pool. Immediately, the press swarmed the small village of Royden in Essex and began running headlines like Gay Orgy Gay Comics Lover Has HIV and even one suggesting that Barrymore might star in a reboot of the classic British comedy

Only Fools and Horses, instead titled Only Pools and Corpses. I have nothing to say. Somebody in a newsroom was like, I don't care how we work it in. I need to write this down somewhere. Only Pools and Corpses. Fuck it up. I i mean it was there i mean it works as a joke it does it does work as a joke you are right it does work as a joke so the case of stewart lubbock's death was enormous news here in the united kingdom and when the shocking details

of stewart's post-mortem were revealed, the situation went from bad to worse. But we're going to blue ball you with that and deal with it later on. Yeah, because I think this is a story that I am definitely guilty of this.

As I think we are often when there are like really big cases that involve celebrities, everyone's kind of like, I kind of know that. I kind of know that story. And then you dig into it

and you're like, I did not know this story. And that is very much the case here. Because initially, despite all of the sensationalism, it seemed as though Stuart Lubbock's strange death would be a scandal that Michael Barrymore, king of TV, might just slip away from. The British public wanted to believe that the lovable Barrymore was just an innocent bystander to a tragic accident. Nothing more. And at first, everything about the incident seemed to fit this narrative. But before we get into that, let's talk about Stuart Lubbock.

Stuart was a 31-year-old manager at a meat factory in Harlow in Essex. But we have to admit, he does look a lot younger than that. So much younger. When I read that he was 31, I was like, what? That does not compute with the image that I have in my head of Stuart Lubbock. Now, I would ID him. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Because he could pass for 18 or perhaps even a bit younger. And Stuart Lubbock was very handsome. Stuart had an ex-wife and two children, aged four and one. And the night he died, which was Saturday the 30th of March 2001, Stuart had been out with his brother Kevin. Stuart had recently broken up with his long-term partner and the brothers were out for a good time. And that same night, Michael Barrymore and his boyfriend Jonathan Kenny were also out in Harlow. The couple started off their night at a local Indian restaurant where they ate, shared a few glasses of wine, and in classic Saturday night curry house behaviour,

threw back some shots of Sambuca. I mean, I think that when we said that the press were going to be the last British institution to be discussed in this episode, we have grossly told a lie because I think the Saturday Night Curry plus the shots of Sambuca is in fact the final British institution in this episode. Yes, my Sambuca haunt was called the Newer Cash in Berkhamsted. Lovely, lovely, lovely. It's changed over the years in Letchworth. I think one we used to go to was Dine Bangla. So there you go. Lovely. Well, not as lovely as the Chinese takeaway called Lots of Rice,

which was shut down for being a brothel. Oh, well, there was an aroma in Stevenage that got shut down when they found dog meat. So I win. Anyway, from the restaurant, the brothers headed into town and ended up at The Millennium, one of the few late night venues in Harlow. And I think that is the only time I have ever said that word correctly. And it was at The Millennium that the pair bumped into brothers, Kevin and Stuart Lubbock.

Kevin says that his brother Stuart came out of the loos of the club saying, oh my god, Michael Barrymore is here. And at the time, Michael Barrymore absolutely had the level of fame that if you had seen him in a club, you would be like, oh my god, Michael Barrymore is here. And when Michael Barrymore did indeed come out of the loos, the men hung out with him. They chatted to him for a bit, throwing around the TV star's catchphrases and joking about. But Kevin now looks back at their run-in with Barrymore in that club with disdain. From Kevin's description, Barrymore didn't seem that interested in their jokes and couldn't really be bothered with Kevin

whatsoever, giving him the cold shoulder. He did, however, take more of a liking to Stuart, and eventually Barrymore invited Stuart downstairs to the VIP area, which 31-year-old Stuart, who was out for a good time, of course, eagerly accepted. Kevin says he joked with his brother, saying, oh, so you're going down there then, are you? And then watched as his brother followed the UK's biggest TV star downstairs.

Kevin would never see his brother Stuart alive again. I do have to say that a downstairs VIP area in Harlow, Essex in 2001 probably is equivalent to the mouth of hell. Like, I can't think of much worse things. I just think the VIP area of any club... Yeah, I agree. Any club, full stop. ...is just the most sinister place you could end up. So if there's one thing you're going to tell your kids,

if anyone invites you to VIP, just say no thank you and leave. Roughly an hour later, around 2.15am, Stuart and a few others stumbled out of the club with Barrymore and got a taxi back to his house in Royden to carry on the party. According to the taxi driver who was later interviewed, Barrymore was absolutely hammered and he leaned into the front of the car whilst he was driving to announce that he could do with a good fuck. At around 2.30 the group arrived at Barrymore's house and then three hours later, roughly, someone would make that 999 call that we heard earlier.

What happened within those three hours is where things get complicated, as various other people continue to turn up at Barrymore's home. Yeah, so we like don't even know exactly who the cast is of this weird evening. By the time that call was made, there were nine people at the house, including Stuart Lubbock and Michael Barrymore. The others were Barrymore's boyfriend, Jonathan Kenny, a local bin man called Justin Merritt, his sister Kylie Merritt, and her two young friends, Claire Jones and Kayleigh Campbell, as well as two men who knew Barrymore locally, called James Futers and Simon Shaw. According to Barrymore, when he and his guests first arrived at the house,

he showed them all the kitchen where they could pour themselves a drink. He then began to give various guests tours of his large house and garden before he and some of the guests smoked a joint. Again, according to Barrymore, he then went back to his room to get some swimming shorts before turning on his outside lights and heading towards the jacuzzi. It was then that he walked outside with James Futers and Simon Shaw to see 31-year-old Stuart Lubbock laying dead in his boxer shorts in the pool. And it was at this point that someone called 999.

Now there's some debate about who exactly made this call, as the caller has never actually been officially identified by the police, but it is widely reported to have been Justin Merritt. Stuart Lubbock was rushed to Princess Alexandra Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8.23am that morning, and at first it looked like it had just been a tragic accident. The police on the scene hadn't felt that there was any reason to suggest foul play, which we most certainly will come back to later. And even the press seemed more focused on using Stuart's death as just an excuse to delve into Michael Barrymore's private life, rather than expose this as having been some sort of murder.

However, over the next few weeks, information slowly came to light that cast doubt on the entire situation. First and foremost, people began to question why Michael Barrymore hadn't been at the scene when the police arrived. He was there when Stuart's body was found, and it was found at his house. So what happened? Well, according to Barrymore, he phoned his PA, David Brown, who told

him that if an ambulance was on its way, then he had done all he could and that he should get out of the house before the media arrived. And then people started to ask the question why Barrymore hadn't jumped into the swimming pool to help Stuart Lubbock. He'd left that to Futers and Shaw. Barrymore claimed that he couldn't swim and he knew that his partner Jonathan Kenny had first aid training so he'd rushed inside to get him instead. Maybe I am being stupid. If you can't swim why do you have a swimming pool at your house? That's not what I thought you were gonna say but that's a good question. Flex. Flex flex flex flex flex flex look at me just stand in my swimming pool in the shallow wind crouching but no i thought you were gonna say like of all of the things that are sort of

thrown at michael barrymore in this case the why didn't he jump in the pool is the weakest attack on him everyone jumping in the pool is not the solution to someone who was in there no that's true and why did it need to be michael barrymore as long as someone jumped in the pool but that is pretty much the most like benefit of the doubt i'm going to give him on this well and you're quite right too because this explanation seemed reasonable to some people, not me, but some people did think it was reasonable. But then various people came out in the press, including Barrymore's ex-wife of 20 years, saying that Michael Barrymore absolutely, definitely, 100% could swim. There was also some debate about how long it took to call 999. This is the big issue. According to the guests at the house that night,

Stuart's body was found between 4.15 and 4.45am. However, the call wasn't made until an hour later at 5.46am. Was this discrepancy just down to the guests losing track of time in the chaos of finding a dead body? Or was there an hour-long window in which they knew Stuart had died, but they did not call for help? These questions were picking up speed, but the real stinger came with the post-mortem. Or post-mortems, plural, to be precise. The first post-mortem of Stuart Lubbock was conducted by pathologist Dr Michael Heath. Heath found no signs of any kind of struggle, other than a few injuries which he attributed to Stuart having been pulled out of the pool. Dr Heath also found fluid in Stuart's air passages and lungs,

all of which brought him to the same conclusion as the police. Stuart had drowned. But there was more. Because while Dr Michael Heath couldn't find any injuries that directly contributed to Stuart's death, he did find something deeply worrying. As Heath examined Stuart, he noticed a large amount of blood which had stained the cloth the young man had been wrapped in. And this blood seemed to be focused around Stuart's groin. Upon closer inspection, it was found that Stuart had serious injuries to his anus, which had caused extreme dilation, as well as tearing and lacerations to the inner wall.

But despite these findings, Michael Heath still advised Essex police that Stuart had likely died as a result of drowning, believing that while his injuries were serious, they hadn't caused his death. But to just ignore that those injuries were there is the problem. And when this information found its way to the press, as information usually does, it understandably caused uproar. The tabloids had, by this point, started pushing the narrative of a secret, out-of-control gay orgy. And now, a dead man with injuries to his anus only fanned the flames. And the situation turned into a rampant circus of speculation,

as Stuart Lubbock's sexuality became the key focus. In the Channel 4 documentary on this case called The Body in the Pool, stereotypically sleazy journalist Paul McMullen happily admits on camera that he approached Stuart Lubbock's mother at her home just days after Stuart's death, claiming to be an investigator and probed her on her son's sexuality. During their brief conversation, Stuart's mum told him that her son was absolutely not gay and that she couldn't understand why the papers were saying otherwise. McMullen told her that he couldn't understand either, before running several headlines, all of which stated that Stuart was gay. And we have no way to know if Stuart was gay or bi or not. I would say, though, asking

someone's mum is probably the least likely person to know, arguably. But having said that, Stuart's family still deny it to this day. His ex-wife also and his brother are still adamant that Stuart was a ladies' man. Some people imply that Stuart must have been gay or why else would he have gone back to Barrymore's house? That's an extremely weak argument because you know what else was there? Loads of fucking drugs. And also, women were there too. So it doesn't really prove anything.

Yeah, like, there are so many reasons. Michael Barrymore is a celebrity. When else are you going to get a chance to go back to a celebrity's house for a VIP party? And yes, he was there after a breakup for a good time. I'm sure Michaelrymore was bankrolling that entire night and again as hannah said there were lots of young women it is an important part of this story i think you can't just dismiss stewart lubbock's sexuality as part of this because i think it's a crucial part of like what happens but it's something we're gonna have to

come back to i just think the arguments that he must have been gay to go there is not accurate. And as for those injuries, tough luck. We've got other stuff to get through first. So with the tabloids now firmly stuck into this case, various outlets paid huge sums of money to those party guests to get their side of what had happened that night. Journalist Paul McMullen admits that

none of the people who were there, their stories didn't really add up and they'd all just kind of painted themselves as the hero. McMullen also admits that he didn't really care though, he didn't really care who was telling the truth because whatever they printed about Michael Barrymore's party and Stuart Lubbock's death, they sold a shit ton of papers. Publicly, Barrymore maintained that he was as concerned as anybody with what had happened to Stuart Lubbock, and the public was still mostly on his side, believing that Barrymore had simply been dragged into a horrible chain of events which he'd had nothing to do with. And you can see how that narrative could work, right? There's a lot of people there drinking, doing all sorts of things. Somebody drowns, that's what

they're told. So is it enough to bring Michael Barrymore down? People don't really think so at the time. But Barrymore was far from out of the woods. On September 9, 2001, Essex police launched an inquest into Stuart's death, although this would somewhat be overshadowed by a much larger story that would come just two days later. Despite a world-stoppingly large terror attack that dominated the headlines, the inquest did push on, and a second post-mortem was carried out. And this time, the injuries to Stuart's anus were examined more closely and it was found that a large object had been forcefully inserted into Stuart's body. It was also decided that because the injuries were so severe, there's absolutely no way that this was a consensual sex act.

A forensic pathologist who specialised in cases of drowning was also brought in, and suspicions were raised further. Dr Ian Calder, who had examined countless victims of drowning in his decades-long career, did not come to the same conclusions as Dr Michael Heath and the Essex Police. And look, before we go into what Calder finds in the second post-mortem, of course, if you get multiple people to look at the same thing, they might come to different conclusions, being pathologists. But I do want to point out that Dr. Michael Heath has not covered himself in glory since this case happened. There are multiple cases against him of families of people that he has carried out postmortems on basically saying how incredibly botched a job he did so i can't go into all of them because there are many but there is one in particular one set of cases in particular that came out in 2021 where

basically it looks like people cremated the wrong bodies and were given the ashes of the incorrect people. I remember that. Based on Dr. Michael Heath's postmortems. And it sort of came to light when there was one case in particular of a woman named Anne House whose postmortem examination mentioned a gallbladder, a postmortem examination carried out by Dr. Michael Heath.

Anne had had her gallbladder taken out five years before that. So this obviously started to raise a lot of questions from family members about who exactly they had received. So yes, Michael Heath, maybe not the best post-mortem carrier router in the world. But anyway, let's get into what Calder found. Calder said that Stuart's body did not show any of the classic signs of drowning. His lungs were far too heavy and they were not overlapping and they also did not contain any stomach contents. To add to this, the second post-mortem also found petechial hemorrhaging in Stewart's face and eyes. Petechial hemorrhaging, or pinpoint hemorrhaging, as the name suggests, shows itself as tiny red pinpoint marks,

and this is due to blood leaking from the tiny capillaries in the eyes, which can rupture due to increased pressure on the veins in the head when the airways are obstructed. And so it's an important sign of asphyxia caused by some external means of obstructing airways. So petechial hemorrhaging is a strong indication of a death caused by manual strangulation, hanging or smothering. It's apparently incredibly rarely seen in drownings. And most damningly, Calder also examined the photographs taken at the scene of Stuart's death and noticed there were two objects present at that scene which had not been taken in as evidence. A large pool thermometer that looks a bit like a plunger with a square handle

and the handle from a cupboard door that had been broken off. Calder believed that both of these objects could have inflicted the damage to Stuart Lubbock, and neither one of them have ever been found. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cone. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up.

But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry.

Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the Rise and Fall of Diddy. Listen to the Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent

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Start your free trial today. With the news dominated by the attack on the World Trade Center and the following war in the Middle East, you might think that these findings would be small fry in the papers. However, it is a testament to quite how famous Michael Barrymore was at the time, that despite all of this, the inquest into Stuart Lubbock's death was still making headlines. In an effort to get some control back over the situation, on the 30th of October 2001, Michael Barrymore sat down for an interview with now disgraced BBC journalist Martin Bashir. Boo!

Yeah, sorry, sorry Martin. Prison! Yeah, actually, no, I'm not sorry, I hate you Martin Bashir. Ugh. Did you offer cocaine to anybody? No. You didn't? No, not at all.

I'm sure you'll be aware that there are now effectively two descriptions of what happened on that night, and both of them appear to tally. Well, what descriptions are they? Justin Merritt, for example, has said that... ..you offered cocaine to all of the people in the kitchen. Yeah. And he says that you dabbed your finger in cocaine and forcibly rubbed it on Stuart Lubbock's gum in the kitchen?

That never took place. The only time I had anything was with a couple of guys down the other end of the house. At that time, they all went out to the pool. So is Justin Merritt lying when he says that that was what you did and he saw you do it? Is he lying? Yes. Yes, he is. Heritt lying when he says that that was what you did and he saw you do it? Is he lying? Yes.

Yes, he is. He's lying? Yes. Is it not possible that you had cocaine in the house that evening? It's possible. I mean, a trace of cocaine was found in the house. Is it not possible that you gave cocaine to the guests? No, it isn't possible. Why are you so categoric on that?

Because actually for that evening, I know the sequence of events. I wasn't so off it that I didn't know what was going on. Came into the house, showed them where everything was, went down the other end, had a smoke with the lads, came back, went to go out to the jacuzzi and that's when I discovered Stuart. What did you do? I just freaked out. I ran back in and got Jonathan, and that was a lifesaver.

And Simon and James jumped in and pulled his body out. Did you call the police? No. Why not? Because somebody was doing it. Justin Merritt says he called the... he called 999. Yeah, I called... Well, Justin and... Justin and Jonathan came out to the body.

What did you do next? I was standing on the other side and I just lost it. I just panicked. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't believe what was standing on the other side and I just lost it. I just panicked. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't believe what was going on. So what did you think as you looked...? That he'd been under the water a while. And the way he was. But that made you panic?

Not panic. When I say panic, I just like... I'm freaking out. Seeing him under there and it just seemed that their efforts to do anything, it wasn't coming round. So what did you do? I didn't do anything at that point. Simon and James had come down to get away, there's nothing you can do and leave the place because, you know, it's going to be swarming with police and press

and I just went along with that. and leave the place because, you know, it's going to be swarming with police and press. And I just went along with that. So you're saying that it was suggested to you that you should get out of the house? Yes. Do you think that was the most responsible behaviour? No. I mean, he is a total stranger who's clearly injured in some way in the pool,

and you leave the house? Yeah. It's almost tantamount to a criminal offense isn't it like leaving the scene of an accident can you see it's only tantamount to that if you're leaving the scene of the accident if you caused it now as you just heard in those clips barry moore's aim with this interview was clear he wanted to discredit the stories put forward by both the Merritt siblings, who claimed to have seen him take cocaine and give cocaine to Stuart Lubbock that night. And he wanted to give some sort of explanation for his actions with regards to A, not jumping in the pool to help, and B, leaving before the police arrived. This interview set the tone for

Michael Barrymore's attitude towards the investigation, one that would have a long-standing effect on the opinion of the British public. While Barrymore talked about wanting to uncover the truth for the sake of Stuart's family, his combative and defensive responses to Bashir's questions told a very different story. However, the true watershed moment would come a few months into the inquiry, when it came time for Barrymore and his party guests to testify in court. As the various guests told their stories, it became increasingly clear that what they were saying did not tell the full picture. And what they did tell the court seemed only to muddy the already cloudy waters.

Everyone except Kylie Merritt's two young female friends, both of whom were under 18 at the time of the inquest, testified to a very different chain of events. I just want to point out something here that I think is kind of consistently overlooked, is that the fact that both of Kylie Merritt's friends had been under 18 at the time of the inquiry means they were well under the age of 18 at the time of Michael Barrymore's party, where adult men were getting hammered and all sorts of high. So yes, again, the people that want to kind of defend Michael Barrymore and Michael Barrymore himself, I'm like, OK, you might not have caused Stuart Lubbock's death. Again, I don't know. We'll get to that. What were you doing having children at a drug-fuelled party at your house? So the argument that he kind of takes this call from his PA, who's like, get out of the house. You want to get out before the media are there.

Why are you putting yourself in such a position in the first place? But let's stick with the testimonies of the guests for now. Like we said, many of the guests had already sold their accounts of that night to the papers for enormous sums of money. And every single one of them had essentially painted themselves as heroic victims who'd just been caught up in a tragedy beyond their control. And since these stories were out already, now that these witnesses were in court testifying under oath, they didn't really feel like they could change the narrative, which made it very difficult to get to the reality of the matter because they just couldn't all be telling the truth. And the public did still want to believe that Michael Barrymore was innocent. In the lead up to his appearance at the inquest, the general belief amongst the

British public was that Barrymore would arrive and clear everything up. His persona was that of a straight-talking man of the people. Surely he would give the courts everything he could remember and try and get to the bottom of Stuart Lubbock's death. Therefore, it came as an enormous shock when Michael Barrymore arrived at the inquest and went all no comment. Barrymore had been advised by his legal team that as this was an inquest into Stuart's death and not an official investigation into him personally,

he was not legally required to answer any questions that he didn't want to. And this was true. And he was well within his rights to no comment his way through the majority of this inquest. But just because something is allowed, whether it's a good idea or not, is a separate question. Because for the British public, it became the straw that broke the camel's back. That day, Barrymore refused to answer numerous questions and seemed solely focused on clarifying that he wasn't responsible for Stuart's death. Barrymore told the court how he'd seen Stuart in the jacuzzi

with his boyfriend Jonathan Kenny and Justin Merritt, the bin man. Barrymore then said that his boyfriend came inside, leaving Stuart alone in the jacuzzi with Justin. Barrymore told the court that he last saw Stuart alone in the jacuzzi with Justin. Barrymore told the court that he last saw Stuart alone in the jacuzzi playing with a baseball cap. When asked if he saw Stuart taking cocaine on the night of his death, Barrymore replied, I'm not prepared to answer that question. When asked if he had rubbed cocaine into Stuart's gums, he replied, no, I did not. The truth was that the public didn't care if Michael Barrymore

did coke, but not answering questions about a suspicious death on his property, in their eyes, did make him look guilty as hell. On top of this, the Merritt siblings had both publicly accused Barrymore of forcing Stuart to take cocaine. But in Barrymore's testimony, Justin Merritt was the last person to be seen with Stuart before he died, and that felt a little bit too convenient. In September 2002, coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray felt that she had no choice but to return an open verdict, although she clearly did so with a heavy heart. She ended the inquest with the following statement.

None of these witnesses, who were party guests for three hours, have given to this court an explanation of how Stuart Lubbock, a previously fit 31-year-old, should be found floating in a swimming pool at the premises with a significant level of alcohol and drugs in his system and have serious anal injuries. Now, of course, this did not land at all well with the British public. But at the time, Team Barrymore took it as a win. An open verdict left the case open to interpretation, and Barrymore himself thought that he might just be able to salvage his career. This was until the 21st of September 2002,

when ITV announced that they wouldn't be making any more shows with him. Barrymore spent the next year doing interviews in which he talked about how the case had affected him personally and how he desperately wanted the Lubbock family to find some peace. He also began talking about some quote-unquote new evidence that had been uncovered by his legal team and he thought that this would blow the whole case wide open. What was this evidence? Well, Barrymore began telling any

interviewer who would listen that Stuart Lubbock's body had not sustained those anal injuries at his party, but rather they had happened when Stuart arrived at hospital. And this suggestion happened after a nurse who was on the scene when Stuart Lubbock's body arrived told Barrymore's legal team that they had not seen any blood or injuries when he came through the door. And this nurse says that she didn't even see the scuff marks found at the first post-mortem which were attributed to Stuart's body being dragged from the pool and also she said she didn't see any injuries to his rectum which I would argue he's been dead in the pool for minimum an hour. Is there going to be gushing blood? I don't think so. Again it's so... let's just get into it. Let's keep going it's so confusing and then barrymore's legal team

announced that they actually had hospital reports showing that a rectal thermometer had been inserted into stewart's body 14 times the difference in size between a pool thermometer and a thermometer that is actually designed for a butthole is quite different. Oh yeah. So I think maybe to a unmedically trained ear, 14 times a thermometer being inserted into somebody might sound pretty outrageous. But is it possible that a rectal thermometer was ever inserted into Stuart, let alone that many times? And if so, why? And even if it had, could a rectal thermometer in a hospital have caused the kind of damage found by Dr. Ian Calder during the second post-mortem? All very important questions that we need to talk about. And us being non-medical professionals were a little bit dubious about some of these questions and everything you read on the internet and in the press is a total mess.

So we did actually speak to a relative of a member of the Red Handed team who has experience working in intensive care, and they told us the following. In A&E, there is apparently a saying, someone's not dead until they're warm and dead. This is especially true, apparently, when someone has been in cold water, as Stuart Lubbock had. Why? Because there have actually been some very notable cases in which people have fallen into cold water and almost completely shut down to the point that their vital signs are virtually undetectable. And in these very, very rare circumstances,

there have been occasions where these people have returned to normal body temperature and then come back to life, in some cases going on to make a full recovery. Now, I have to stress this is very uncommon. However, it is notable enough that A&E staff will hold off pronouncing a cold body dead until it has returned to an ambient temperature, which will explain to you why that Stuart Lubbock 999 is called at like 5.30 in the morning and Stuart Lubbock is not pronounced dead until gone 8 o'clock in the morning, hours later. And in these cases where the body has become that cold, one of the only places to take a core body temperature is via a rectal thermometer or probe. So, that means Stuart Lubbock, who was found in an outdoor swimming pool in March,

it's pretty conceivable that a rectal probe would have been inserted to keep an eye on his core temperature in A&E. And as for the number of times, according to our source, it is more likely that the probe was inserted fully and then partially removed or checked a number of times during the hours before Stuart was pronounced dead. Well, duh, like they're waiting for him to hit a certain temperature. And I don't think it takes a genius to figure this out, but both forensic pathologists on this case and the source that we spoke to who works in intensive care a rectal thermometer would not cause anywhere near the level of damage that Stuart Lubbock had sustained to his rectum it doesn't matter how many times it was inserted and pulled out or checked or whatever because as I

alluded to earlier rectal thermometers are designed to be inserted into a person when they're still alive yeah and like even if you're like well Stuart Lovecock was dead so maybe they were just not as careful as they needed to be. It's designed to be inserted to check if somebody is alive. Yeah. So they're not like oh he's dead they're like we don't know if he's dead let's put this thermometer in he might still be alive I'm not just gonna jam it in and do whatever and cause a load of internal injuries. But by this point, several postmortems and one inquest down, the police were none the wiser as to what had actually caused Stuart's death. According to Dr Ian Calder,

one of four forensic pathologists who examined Stuart's body, he believed that Stuart was the victim of a vicious sexual assault, which resulted in Stuart going into shock or suffering cardiac arrest. Yeah, because like all we've figured out so far is that he didn't drown. Yeah, that's what Calder says. He says that the first post-mortem is completely wrong. There is no evidence that Stuart Lubbock drowned. So Calder believes that whoever attacked Stuart then watched him stumble into the pool or put him in the pool themselves in order to cover up the attack. It's important to note that of the four pathologists who examined Stuart's body,

three of them would conclude that his death was suspicious. The only pathologist who did not come to that conclusion was the first one, Dr. Michael Heath. Heath went on to voluntarily retire after several high-profile incidents in which he came to extremely contradictory conclusions to his peers, and also the one that I mentioned earlier where they don't even know if he was labelling people correctly. And the idea that Stuart may have suffered some kind of enormous reaction or episode as the result of a sexual assault does have legs. A quick Google search into fainting responses after anal penetration brings up countless articles on the vasovagal response. of a sexual assault does have legs. A quick google search into fainting responses after

anal penetration brings up countless articles on the vasovagal response. So apparently stimulation to the vasovagal nerve is the same reason that some people faint when they are exposed to blood. Stimulation to this nerve which tracks its way across the body including the heart can cause rapid drops in both pulse and blood pressure. And there have been some very severe cases in which the vasovagal response has been triggered during a surgery, for example, and the response has been so intense that the patient has actually appeared to be dead. And apparently the same response can be caused, to a smaller degree, by anal penetration. And we've read countless Reddit threads where people report feeling incredibly faint during anal sex. So it's not impossible that a vicious sexual assault on

Stuart could have caused a vasovagal response so intense that he appeared to be dead. So perhaps a would-be attacker thought that they'd killed Stuart, and therefore they needed to find a way to explain his death in the middle of a party. However, the general public were not as informed as we are today, and the suggestion that Stuart's injuries had been caused by a post-mortem thermometer was enough to explain away the situation for some people. And so in September 2003, Michael Barrymore attempted the first of his many attempts to relaunch his career with a seven-week one-man show in London. However, as you probably could have guessed, this did not end well. Despite not having officially been convicted of any crime, Michael Barrymore's rapport with the audience was damaged.

I also think that if you're trying to reverse a fall from grace, a one-man show is the opposite of what you should be doing. You should be showing that you can get along with other people is what you should be doing. Yeah. I think he thought that he could just do it with the audience. The audience is the other cast in this story. But it doesn't work. Because before his straight talking, slightly inappropriate uncle routine had gone down well. But against the backdrop of a potential sexual assault victim turning up dead in his pool, things are a bit different now. The seven week show only lasted three days before being cancelled. Shortly after this, Barrymore received a £1.4 million tax bill and promptly fled to New Zealand, trying to kickstart a career there. This also didn't land well and he ended up returning to the UK a year

later in 2004 to declare voluntary bankruptcy. And then Barrymore was quiet for almost a whole year, until the 5th of January 2006, when the British public witnessed this. Right, my friends, this is where the fun really starts. You've had housemate number one. Please welcome housemate number two. Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? Guess who's back? I'm Michael Barrymore. Please welcome housemate number two When I was asked to do Big Brother, I thought well why not you know I like people which is

Helpful because when I work with them a lot, I just want to see what to see what it's like to work with them 24 hours a day. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Michael Barrymore! For a British person, that is instantly recognisable. But if you're not familiar with who that is, what you just listened to was the iconic voice of

Davina McCall announcing Michael Barrymore as the second contestant on season four of Celebrity Big Brother along with a montage of clips of Barrymore set to the Eminem song Without Me i.e. Guess Who's Back and I will say we had um I'm allowed to say this, we had a call with Channel 4 the other day and I really, really, really, really wanted to say, you're live on Channel 4, please do not swear. But I didn't because it was boring.

When we look back at that now, this all feels like it reflects quite poorly on Michael Barrymore. For a start, he cried whilst walking through the crowd into the Big Brother house, clearly overwhelmed at finally having people cheer for him again. Secondly, his impressions of Adolf Hitler and Jimmy Savile that he did in the house did not age well. I don't think Adolf Hitler would have aged well at the time. I know, I love that. It's like, oh, there was a point in the mid-2000s where Adolf Hitler impressions were all the rage. But despite his Hitler impressions not particularly striking a chord, his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother did actually prove to be Michael Barrymore's most successful attempt at reviving his career.

He came second in that year's Celebrity Big Brother, and just days after leaving the show, he would sit down for a high-profile meeting with Terry Lubbock, Stuart's dad. In the documentary The Body in the Pool, Terry Lubbock clearly feels that he was played by Barrymore's PR team. When they approached him about a meeting, Terry had thought that he might get some answers about his son's death. But instead, all he got was some small talk and a photo opportunity. For Barrymore, though, it was exactly what he needed to get his career back on track. And over the next few months, he appeared all over Britain's screens, from being on Graham Norton to appearing on The Weakest Link.

For a few months, it really did look like Barrymore was back. But then, on the 19th of April 2006, just months after making his comeback, Essex police announced that they were reviewing Stuart Lubbock's death as part of a routine procedure. And once again, Barrymore's career was put on ice. And when in December that year, the police announced that they were reopening the investigation based on their review, the writing was on the wall. The following June, Michael Barrymore, Jonathan Kenny and Justin Merritt were all arrested on suspicion of serious sexual assault and murder. All three were eventually released without charge days after, but this was the final nail in Michael Barrymore's coffin.

The same year, the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched an investigation into the original handling of the case. And this revealed, as we mentioned earlier, that two key pieces of evidence, the pool thermometer and the door handle, had never been recovered. And that David Brown, Michael Barrymore's PA, had actually been allowed onto the crime scene

to quote-unquote tidy up. What the fuck was going on? So the investigation into Stuart Lubbock's death is still open to this day, over 20 years later, and the police honestly seem no closer to solving the case. In 2017, Barrymore was awarded nominal damages after taking Essex Police to court looking for £2.5 million in lost income after his arrest and release in 2007. And on the 17th of March 2021, Essex Police did arrest a 50-year-old man in connection with Stuart Lubbock's death and indecent assault. However, nothing has come of this almost three years on. The last announcement on this case was in November of last year,

when the Essex police vowed to never stop, and they were, quote, motivated by a desire to deliver justice to Mr Lubbock's family. As for Michael Barrymore, his last attempt at a comeback was on ITV's Dancing on Ice in 2019. However, he fell over during training before the first show was broadcast, breaking his hand and forcing him to leave the competition. This has been the last in a long line-up of attempts to revive his career,

none of which have landed. So, on the 23-year anniversary of Stuart Lubbock's death, what do we think? The injuries that Stuart sustained really do make it look, as the second post-mortem stated, that this was not an accidental drowning as a result of too much drink and drugs, but it was actually a sexual assault that turned into a murder. But we do have to say that we don't have any evidence to suggest that Barrymore was the person responsible for Stuart Lubbock's death. There were nine people in the house that night, and even if you take out the two teenage girls, that still leaves seven who could have inflicted those injuries to Stuart. Michael Barrymore was just the most famous and therefore the best target for the press.

That being said, his actions after finding Stuart don't paint a particularly good picture of the man that the public used to love. In every interview, to this day, Michael Barrymore has seemed more focused on salvaging his career than worrying about Stuart Lubbock's death. So maybe the real reason that Michael Barrymore hasn't managed to make a TV comeback isn't because the British public think of him as a murderer, they just think of him as a bit of a dickhead. Thoughts? Concerns? Feelings? Many concerns. Lots of them.

I think he did it. There's no evidence. No, there's no evidence. I think he is the most likely person in that house that night to have carried that out. And I do absolutely think that it was a sexual assault that turned fatal. I have no doubt that it was a sexual assault that turned fatal? I have no doubt that it was a sexual assault that turned fatal.

I think the evidence that we do have shows that most likely Stuart Lubbock was the victim of some brutal sexual assault. And whoever did it then either found themselves with somebody they thought was dead or somebody that they knew they needed to keep quiet. And so I think it makes more sense that maybe he was smothered or something like that because that fits in with the physical evidence we see like the particular hemorrhaging or manual strangulation and then he was thrown into the pool to cover their tracks as to whether michael barrymore was the person who actually did

it we don't have any evidence to know that he was the person but he was certainly acting in a reckless enough way throwing these parties with underage children there and all sorts of drugs and whatnot going on that led to a scenario where somebody felt comfortable enough to do this so yeah bad times yeah there you have it don't go and watch 90s saturday night tv it's a bad time it truly is so that's it guys and michael barrymore is incredibly litigious so if he don't go and watch 90s Saturday night TV. It's a bad time. It truly is. So that's it, guys. And Michael Barrymore is incredibly litigious,

so if he hasn't sued us into the dirt, we'll see you next week for something else. Bye! Bye! To be continued... But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry.

But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either, until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more.

Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.