COPS are to dramatically REOPEN the investigation into Stuart Lubbock's death at Michael Barrymore's home.
A police review of the case has uncovered fresh doubts over the gay TV star's claim that Stuart accidentally drowned in his pool after a party in 2001.
The 70-page report accuses detectives of BUNGLING the original inquiry and orders them to look at new evidence unearthed by Lubbock family lawyers following a News of the World expose of how one of the witnesses had LIED at the inquest.
Cops will now investigate suspicions that 31-year-old Stuart was NEVER in the water and that his "drowning" was a staged COVER-UP.
They will also look at claims that Stuart died an HOUR before the alarm was raised — and that the serious anal injuries discovered on his body were caused by a violent homosexual assault at the star's house.
An Essex Police spokesman told us: "I can confirm that we are re-opening the investigation into the death of Stuart Lubbock."
An outside force will be brought in from time to time to keep an eye on the inquiry.
Lied
Head of the Lubbock legal team, Tony Bennett, said: "Stuart's father Terry is delighted.
"He has always been deeply concerned about the first police investigation and how it was stated as a fact at the inquest that Stuart was found in the pool.
"Essex Police now agree there are grave doubts as to whether this was the case and are pursuing ten specific and promising lines of inquiry."
Mr Bennett said the Lubbock family's fight for justice had been spurred on by our revelations that witness Kylie Merritt, 23, had lied to the inquest when she said she saw Barrymore rubbing cocaine into Stuart's gums at the party.
She broke down and confessed after failing our lie detector test earlier this year.
"That story encouraged us to look at all the other witness statements and we found a load of contradictions," said Mr Bennet. "We are convinced there was a cover-up."
Essex police are to contact all four pathologists involved in the case, asking them to look again at their findings in the light of claims that Stuart was never in the pool.
When ambulancemen and cops got to the mansion on March 31, 2001, he was lying dead by the side of it.
They assumed he'd been pulled out of the water. Barrymore had already fled the scene.
Two of the pathologists openly speculated that there was evidence of asphyxiation — tiny blood spots on Stuart's face which pointed to suffocation, not drowning.
Police will also take into account lawyers' claims that Stuart had been dead an hour before an ambulance was called, giving time for a careful clean-up operation to take place.
Barrymore, 54, continues to maintain Stuart's death was ‘a tragic accident' and denies any knowledge of how he suffered his internal injuries.
Last night Stuart's father Terry, 62, said: "I have waited nearly six years to find out what happened to my son. Now, at last, I do believe they have made a breakthrough."
