He was subsequently discovered by the examining pathologist to have suffered serious anal injuries, with traces of ecstasy, cocaine and alcohol in his blood.

According to BBC News,[1] neighbours described Stuart Lubbock as a "pleasant, sociable" man who lived with his father Terry and brother Kevin in a terraced house in Harlow, Essex.

Lubbock, a wholesale butcher's supervisor, had visited the Roydon home of television personality Michael Barrymore after meeting him in the Millennium nightclub.

A September 2002 inquest reached an open verdict: Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray said, "None of these witnesses who were party guests for three hours have given to this court an explanation about 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.

[citation needed] In January 2006, Heath volunteered to stop working for police after he was criticised for multiple occasions of having drawn conclusions contradictory to other pathologists.

Bennett's firm attempted to serve the papers on Barrymore whilst he was appearing on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother UK, generating more headlines.

During a lie detector test conducted by tabloid newspaper the News of the World, Merritt later stated that she could not be certain that her allegation was true.

[13] Essex Police subsequently acknowledged that Barrymore had been wrongfully arrested, although this was due to administrative errors, and not to a lack of evidence.

The cash reward, funded by Essex Police and the charity Crimestoppers, was in response to a new Channel 4 documentary on the incident, Barrymore: The Body in the Pool, which aired on 6 February 2020.

[17][18] On 17 March 2021, Essex Police confirmed that they had arrested a 50-year-old man from Cheshire in connection with the indecent assault and murder of Stuart Lubbock, as a result of the appeal, and were preparing to submit a file to the Crown Prosecution Service.