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The six-year saga involving the death of an Essex butcher during a party at the home of Michael Barrymore took a dramatic turn last night when the entertainer and two other men were arrested on suspicion of his murder.
Mr Barrymore, 55, was held at his London home at 9am by detectives conducting a fresh inquiry into the death of Stuart Lubbock, a 31-year-old father-of-two, who was found lying in the swimming pool at the television personality's home in the early hours of 31 March 2001.
The discovery of the body of Mr Lubbock, who had suffered severe anal injuries, presaged the collapse of Mr Barrymore's career amid tales of drug and alcohol abuse.
The entertainer was being detained last night at an unnamed police station in Essex with Jonathan Kenney, his boyfriend at the time of the suspected killing, and Jonathan Merritt, a refuse worker.
All three men were also being questioned on suspicion of serious sexual assault.
It is the first time that Mr Barrymore has been questioned as a murder suspect in the case.
Mr Kenney, 37, and Mr Merritt, 32, were arrested for Mr Lubbock's murder in 2001 but released without charge.
The development was welcomed by Mr Lubbock's family, who have always maintained he was murdered.
They have conducted a long campaign questioning the original investigation by Essex Police and seeking to draw attention to the lifestyle of Mr Barrymore, who denies any wrongdoing.
Terry Lubbock, 62, Stuart's father, said: "I am really pleased. It feels like it is the end of a long struggle."
Essex Police, which announced in December it was starting a re-investigation of the case after a six-month review, declined to comment on what new evidence had come to light.
Mr Barrymore had only returned to Britain last month after ending a self-imposed exile in New Zealand, where he moved in 2003 after filing for bankruptcy in the UK.
After reportedly splitting with his long-term boyfriend, Shaun Davis, he had returned to London's showbiz circuit and last week attended the final of Any Dream Will Do, the search-for-a-star TV show.
Karen Kay, his former agent in New Zealand, said she was sorry to hear of his arrest: "He left about a month ago to come back to England. He wanted to go back home."
The arrests came after detectives received tapes of interviews with Mr Barrymore recorded by Tony Cowell, the brother of impresario and X-Factor judge Simon.
The tapes, recorded in preparation for an autobiography of Mr Barrymore, are understood to cast new light on the events of 31 March 2001 at the entertainer's bungalow at Roydon, near Harlow, Essex.
They were handed over by Mr Cowell earlier this month.
Police insisted last night that yesterday's arrests had been planned before receiving the tapes.
A spokesman said: "Today's arrests are the culmination of work over 12 months in the form of a review and investigation.
They were planned prior to officers obtaining the tapes."It is understood that detectives have also been studying the results of new forensic tests on DNA specimens taken at the bungalow and statements from the reinterviewing of the nine people who attended the impromptu party, held after an outing to a Harlow nightclub.
The 999 call alerting police has also been analysed for any clues in the background noise.
No-one has ever been charged with assaulting or attacking Mr Lubbock, from Harlow, who was a supervisor in a wholesale butchers, on the night of his death.
Mr Barrymore was cautioned for drug offences and allowing his home to used for smoking cannabis.
An inquest in 2002 heard that Mr Lubbock had suffered severe internal injuries which could have indicated a sexual assault.
There were also traces of ecstasy and cocaine in his body amid evidence that he was a regular user of ecstasy.
An open verdict was recorded.
Witnesses said he was found face-up at the bottom the newly-completed swimming pool.
But Mr Lubbock's family claim he died from asphyxiation and in fact never entered the pool or was placed in the water to make his death look like an accident.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said last night that it had suspended an investigation into the original police inquiry, sparked by 38 separate complaints from the Lubbock family, pending the outcome of the arrests.
- INDEPENDENT
