New documentary Barrymore: The Body In The Pool sees Stuart Lubbock’s family open up about his final moments with them before mysteriously dying in Michael Barrymore’s home.
Lubbock was 31 years old when he was found dead in Barrymore’s pool in the early hours of 31 March, 2001.
He had been attending an after party after spending the evening partying at Millenium nightclub in Essex, near Barrymore’s home.
Stuart’s brother Kevin appears in the Channel 4 documentary to discuss what happened that night – and reveals the moment Stuart and Barrymore met for the first time, and how he ended up going to the celebrity’s home that fateful evening.
In emotional scenes, Kevin explained: ‘We go out to this nightclub, same as what we do every week and who’s there, who’s at this nightclub?
‘Stuart said to me “Michael Barrymore is in the toilets” and I was thinking “what? Michael Barrymore?!”’
‘Anyway he came out the toilet and so they’re all shaking his hand they’re saying “oh good on you Michael”, “thanks Michael”, “you’re the best Michael” I heard this actually and he’s coming over in this direction,’ Kevin continued.
‘This woman comes out from somewhere and she whispers something in Stuart’s ear. He went ‘oh alright” like that and he shot off and went down those stairs and I remember looking at him and thinking “oh right, you’re off are you Stu?”’
That was the last moment Kevin was to see his brother, as less than four hours later his body was discovered by the other nine people in attendance.
It was later discovered that he had suffered severe internal injuries around his anus, which were in line with being raped with a foreign object.
The object has never been determined or found, but there were towels with Lubbock’s blood found next to the poolside by the police.
‘What Stuart wanted when he went back to Barrymore’s, he was going to go to work and just say to everybody “Oh you’d never guess where I was on the weekend!”’ Kevin added.
‘That’s all he wanted.’
Remembering his brother, he said: ‘Stuart was the best brother in the world. He was everything you could want really, he was my younger brother as well, I was a year older than him but I did look up to him. Because Stuart had the looks, Stuart had the charm with the girls and that actually made me a bit jealous!’
19 years later, and the case of Stuart Lubbock’s death still remains open and unsolved.
Barrymore has denied all involvement or knowledge of Lubbock’s death, claiming he found him floating in his pool after going outside to smoke marijuana in the early hours of the morning.
He was arrested with two other men, but was later released without charge.
The TV personality declined the opportunity to be interviewed for the documentary, Metro.co.uk has reached out to his reps for comment.
Barrymore: The Body In The Pool airs Thursday at 9pm on Channel 4.
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