Anthony Bennett (English Politician) - Private Prosecutions - Stuart Lubbock

Stuart Lubbock

In January 2006, Bennett started a private prosecution against the entertainer Michael Barrymore over alleged offences involving drink and the possession and use of Class A and Class B drugs by Barrymore during the night when 31-year-old Stuart Lubbock was found dead at Barrymore's house in March 2001. The prosecution was blocked by a District Judge (Magistrates' Court) at Southend-on-Sea Magistrates' Court on the grounds of insufficient evidence. After the decision was made, Bennett announced that he had been acting independently but that he had the support of the Lubbock family. Michael Barrymore released a statement in which he said, "Mr Bennett's motivation to seek the truth as to how Mr Stuart Lubbock received the injuries to his body is absolutely right. I remain totally committed, as I always have been, to continue to pursue the truth. Allegations about drugs on that night have always been a complete irrelevance as to how Stuart Lubbock suffered those injuries. The court held Mr Bennett's misguided application to prosecute me for drugs offences was an abuse of process."

Before the decision was made not to allow the prosecution, Terry Lubbock, the father of Stuart Lubbock, met with Michael Barrymore, when it was alleged that Terry Lubbock told Barrymore he did not blame him for his son's death. Bennett, though, maintained that the private prosecution would proceed, but that he would reconsider if asked to drop the case by the Lubbock family. He added that evidence from the night of Stuart Lubbock's death, made available at the inquest, had not been seen by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Bennett was secretary of The Lubbock Trust which was founded by Terry Lubbock in late January 2006 and formally wound up on 22 June 2007.

He is the co-author, with Terry Lubbock, of a book analysing the events which led to Stuart's violent death, published in June 2007: Not Awight: Getting Away With Murder. Bennett claims that Stuart Lubbock's death was caused by a violent attack on him and that there was an elaborate cover-up of the true circumstances of his death including a staged drowning.

On 10 July, Bennett was informed by the Hate Crime Unit at Harlow police station that they had received a complaint about comments attributed to him about the practice of fisting on the Lubbock Trust website. The police said that as someone had accused him of a homophobic hate crime, they were investigating him over a hate crime. Bennett immediately complained to the Chief Constable of Essex, stating that there was no such thing in British Law as a homophobic hate crime. He stated further that, "There is material on the website which is critical of the lifestyle of homosexuals which activists might take exception to, but I don't have a problem with people from gay lobbies contacting us." Bennett however believed the complaint was made because of the forthcoming release of the Not Awight book.

The police stated that they had received an allegation about homophobic comments being published on the website, and that Essex Police has to investigate all reports of hate crime. They continued that a full investigation was currently being conducted to identify whether offences had been committed. The next day, 11 July, Essex Police Professional Standards Department referred his complaint to the IPCC to investigate.

In a statement on 13 July 2007, which appeared on the Lubbock Trust website, Bennett said that the contents of the site had been agreed by all members of The Trust 13 months earlier, and the reason for including the information was that it related directly to the probable cause of Stuart Lubbock's death. He added that due to concerns expressed by Lubbock Trust Chairman Harry Cichy that some of the material might be seen as 'homophobic', and following a complaint to the website's server, NetPivotal, and a request from them, some of that page had been removed.

Terry Lubbock responded by distancing himself from the controversy saying, "This is a diversion from the campaign which I don't want to take any part in. My aim is as it has always been, to get justice for my son Stuart and that is the only thing in my life now. I'm not going to let anything distract me from that. This latest episode is not doing the campaign a lot of good."

On 13 July 2007, during the launch of Not Awight, Terry Lubbock made a speech, in which he announced that Bennett would no longer be representing him and that The Lubbock Trust was being wound up as most of its original purposes had been achieved. It was further claimed that Lubbock and Bennett had split following the police investigation into Bennett.

On 22 July, Essex Police announced that they had consulted with the CPS and that there would be no further police action. Bennett however, responded by saying that he wanted an outside police force to investigate Essex police's handling of the complaint and the actions of the Essex Police Hate Crimes Unit. He continued, "I have had to endure among other things headlines such as "Gay Hate of Barrymore Accuser" in the Daily Express. I need a full, fair and impartial enquiry by the IPCC into what Essex Police thought they were doing investigating something they must have known from the word go could never have been a crime." In August 2007, it was announced that the police would be taking no further action against the complaint of homophobia on the Lubbock Trust website.