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LONDON - Entertainer Michael Barrymore was released without charge today after being questioned about the death of a meat factory worker who was found in his swimming pool six years ago.
Essex Police had declined to confirm they were holding Barrymore, but his lawyer said his client had
not been charged and he categorically denied the allegations that he was involved in the death.
The body of butcher Stuart Lubbock was found at Barrymore's home in Essex, in March 2001.
Barrymore and two other men aged 32 and 37 were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of murder and serious sexual assault.
Lubbock, 31, was pronounced dead in hospital the morning after he was found at 55-year-old Barrymore's Essex mansion after a party.
Post mortem tests indicated Lubbock had drowned and an inquest recorded an open verdict on his death.
But the coroner said he had been found with drugs and alcohol in his system and with serious anal injuries, suggesting he had been the victim of a violent sexual assault.
His father Terry always refused to accept the death was an accident and campaigned for the case to be re-examined. In December last year, detectives said they would reopen their probe, following a review.
"There was, I think, an elaborate attempt to deceive the police and the pathologist," Terry Lubbock's lawyer told BBC TV.
"I think there was no way this was a drowning. Something else very sinister happened that night."
The scandal surrounding Lubbock's death destroyed Barrymore's once successful TV career.
He left Britain for self-imposed exile in New Zealand in the wake of the negative publicity but made a successful return in 2006 when he appeared in Channel 4's "Celebrity Big Brother" reality TV show.
When Essex police announced last year they would reopen their investigation he said he was "delighted and thrilled".
"I've been asking for years for this to be done," he said.
"I'm willing to do all I can to bring this matter to a correct and proper closure. This issue must be concluded for everybody's sake so that we can all carry on with our lives."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would now put on hold its inquiry into complaints from the Lubbock family that police had failed to investigate the incident properly.
- REUTERS