Open verdict on Barrymore pool death

Michael Barrymore will escape further police questioning over the shocking sex-and-drug allegations revealed at the inquest into the death of Stuart Lubbock, it emerged today.

Detectives said there was "nothing new" that would warrant a re-opening of the investigation into the death of Mr Lubbock, who was found floating in the star's swimming pool.

There is no suggestion that Barrymore was involved in Mr Lubbock's death, but the inquest heard evidence that the entertainer was handing out drugs at the party and that the victim had been the victim of a serious sexual assault.

The decision came as the coroner returned an open verdict saying that none of the guests at the late-night party could offer an explanation of how he died.

The findings followed an extraordinary series of revelations including a pathologist's statement that Mr Lubbock had suffered "a serious sexual assault" and claims that Barrymore had rubbed cocaine on the victim's gums in the hours before he died.

Essex and Thurrock coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray said: "Not one of these witnesses, who were guests at the party for more than three hours, has given to this court an explanation as to how Stuart Lubbock, a previously fit, 31-year-old, should be found floating in the swimming pool with significant levels of drugs and alcohol in his system and how serious injuries came to be found in his body."

She said she had to return an open verdict because, in all the evidence she had heard, there was nothing to help her reach a conclusion as to exactly how Mr Lubbock came to die.

Detectives said earlier they were sure he had suffered a violent sex attack, but a wall of silence from those who were there meant they could not take the investigation any further.

Chief Superintendent Ian McNeill told the inquest the account given by witnesses " remained unhelpful". "None of the people present that night made any allegations in respect of any other person either in terms of sexual activity, assault or homicide," he said.

"All the witnesses appear to have been affected by alcohol to some lesser or greater extent, and the notion of time during that period is problematic for most of the witnesses."

Mr McNeill said that Essex police "remained unable to justify pursuing the investigation at this time", because three out of the four pathologists could not be sure how Mr Lubbock died.

In effect, Mr McNeill was saying that police were sure someone at the party at Barrymore's home committed the sex attack on Mr Lubbock and knew how he came to be in the pool with high levels of ecstasy, cocaine and alcohol in his body, but no one was prepared to say.

Earlier, the inquest had heard that Michael Barry-more's former paper boy had accepted cocaine from the gay entertainer on the night Stuart Lubbock died.

Barrymore offered James Futters a white powder on his finger saying: "Do you want to try this?" Mr Futters told the inquest that he leaned forward and licked the powder.

Mr Futters, now in his twenties, explained how he came to be at Barrymore's £2 million home that night. He said that he had lived in Roydon, the same village as Barrymore and "I was his paper boy when I was a nipper and I had seen him around".

He had been to the house "once or twice before" and, on his way home from the Millennium Club in Harlow that night with his friend Simon Shaw, he decided to drop in, arriving at the house some time between 3am and 4am. "I got the impression there were people all over the place, wandering in and out," he said.

He saw Mr Lubbock "jumping around a lot". At one stage Mr Lubbock downed a tumbler of a vodka-based alcopop. Soon after that he and Mr Shaw went with Barrymore to his bedroom for a "drunken chat". He then described the moment they discovered Mr Lubbock's body.

"We were going to have a dip in the pool. It looked like there was something down there. Simon jumped in when we realised there was someone at the bottom."

The inquest then heard the account of Simon Shaw: "I dived and grabbed hold of the person," he said. "He slipped through my hold and I swam back up to take more air and dived again.

"I grabbed hold of the person and pulled him up and someone grabbed me."

Mr Lubbock was pulled onto the patio and given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage by other party guests. Mr Shaw and Mr Futters quickly left the house because they feared media attention.

After the verdict today a spokesman for the Lubbock family spoke of their "anguish and distress" to which the intense media interest had only added.

"The family now wish to be allowed to continue to grieve in private," he said.