Barrymore: Body In The Pool makes shock allegations that star’s PA removed key evidence from scene of Stuart Lubbock’s death

Documentary Barrymore: The Body In The Pool has made astonishing claims that the TV star’s PA removed potentially major pieces of evidence from the scene of Stuart Lubbock’s death.

Lubbock was just 31 years old when he was found dead in the swimming pool of Barrymore’s Essex home on 31 March, 2001, following a night out at Millenium nightclub nearby.

Barrymore has always maintained that he played no part in his death, instead finding him once he had already drowned and calling out to other members of the party to jump in and get him.

But Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Jennings of Essex Police is seen on camera claiming he believes that Barrymore’s personal assistant later removed items from the home – with a pool thermometer that’s disappeared providing the key to cracking the case.

After police failed to seal off the property securely after the initial investigation, DCI Jennings claimed Michael Browne was seen moving items around the home.

Subsequently the thermometer, which was photographed next to the pool during the initial photography of the scene, was never found.

Speaking in the documentary, DCI Jennings states: ‘We did make mistakes early on in terms with the crime scene because a lot of the witnesses were saying that they thought it was a drowning, a tragic accident. We probably believed it at that point.’

DCI Jennings is the fifth senior investigating officer that has taken on the case over the last 19 years, with the case remaining open as investigations continue.

‘My responsibility now is to review the evidence, to move it forward,’ he said. ‘The scene was secured but not to the standard that we would expect. Hence the reason that people were allowed back in there and we know that items have now gone missing.

‘Throughout the investigation there have been suggestions there was a cover up. Michael Browne, who was Michael Barrymore’s PA at the time, was wrongfully allowed back into the scene where he was seen to be tidying up some items after we’d managed to photograph the scene and that those items have gone missing and we’d never ceased them.

‘There was a handle from a cupboard from an outhouse and also a pool thermometer.’

The thermometer holds particular significance to the case, as it’s believed it could be the item that was used to sexually assault Lubbock before he was killed.

An autopsy revealed that Lubbock had suffered severe internal, anal injuries, which are likely to have been caused by an item repeatedly and forcibly inserted into him in an act of rape.

Coroner Michael Heath stated: ‘I was shown a photograph at the police headquarters and it shows on the wall of the jacuzzi a pool thermometer that would have four cutting edges.

‘An object like this or even this object could have produced the injuries I identified on Stuart’s anus if this had been passed into the anal canal a number of times.’

Michael Browne has adamantly denied he removed any evidence or items from the scene of the crime.

The case has remained open, and while Barrymore and the other members of the party have been interrogated, no one has come forward with an explanation to what happened.