Lubbock father in ‘final appeal’ on Barrymore pool death after cancer diagnosis

Terry Lubbock, whose 31-year-old son Stuart was found in a swimming pool following a party at Mr Barrymore’s then home in Roydon, Essex, on March 31 2001, wants a fresh inquest and says his time is “running out”.

Mr Lubbock, 76, of Harlow, Essex, said on Monday that he wanted anyone with information to contact his lawyers.

“We would like old witnesses to come forward and tell the truth,” he said in a social media appeal.

“For me the clock is ticking and time is running out. This will be my final appeal.”

Mr Lubbock told journalists in February that he had terminal cancer and doctors had told him he had months to live.

At the turn of the year he had called for a new inquest.

Mr Lubbock said he believed information must have emerged which justified a new inquiry by a coroner.

A coroner recorded an open verdict after an inquest in 2002, and three years ago the then-attorney general, Jeremy Wright, refused to give Mr Lubbock the go-ahead to make an application to the High Court for a second inquest.

But Mr Lubbock says a fresh Essex Police appeal, which coincided with the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary, Barrymore: The Body In The Pool, in February 2020, has changed the landscape.

Mr Lubbock says he would like police to tell an inquest jury why they believe that.

He says lawyers have yet to formally ask Attorney General Michael Ellis to give the go-ahead for a new inquest application to be made to the High Court.

No-one has been charged with any offence in relation to Stuart Lubbock’s death.

Mr Barrymore, now 68, was arrested in 2007 but never charged with any offence.

He subsequently sued Essex Police, and claimed a wrongful arrest had cost him about £2.5 million in lost earnings, but Court of Appeal judges concluded he should get nominal damages.

In March 2020, Mr Barrymore spoke to ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme and described the Channel 4 documentary as “vile and vicious”.

He said nobody who was at his house on the night of Stuart Lubbock’s death knew what happened.

Asked if he had anything fresh to offer the police, he replied: “I honestly wish I did.”

He said he had been “through 20 years of hell”.

Essex Police say the investigation continues.

A 50-year-old man arrested on suspicion of the murder and indecent assault of Stuart Lubbock has recently been released under investigation by Essex Police.

The man, who has not been named by police, was arrested in Cheshire on March 17 and subsequently released on bail.

Essex Police said on Sunday that he had been released under investigation.