The chilling 999 call made from Michael Barrymore’s home after a man drowned in his pool has been heard by the public for the first time.
Stuart Lubbock, 31, was found lifeless at Barrymore’s mansion in Roydon, Essex, in the early hours of March 31, 2001.
Nineteen years on, a new documentary will air the party-goer’s phone call that first alerted emergency services to the tragedy.
The unknown reveller tells of how he had just stepped out into the TV presenter’s garden when he spotted Mr Lubbock’s body just after 5.30am.
He rushed over and pulled him out of the pool and told the call handler while he waited for an ambulance to arrive: ‘I think the geezer’s dead mate’.
Barrymore, 67, was arrested in connection with the case six years after Mr Lubbock’s death but was later released without charge. He spent several years out of the spotlight.
Stuart Lubbock, 31, (right) was found lifeless at Michael Barrymore’s mansion (he is pictured left on Good Morning Britain in June last year) in Roydon, Essex, in 2001
An aerial view shows the swimming pool at Barrymore’s Roydon mansion
The Channel 4 programme, Barrymore: The Body In The Pool, has been 18 months in the making and features never-before-seen material from inside the unsolved Essex Police case.
It comes after Barrymore, 67, was forced to pull out of Dancing on Ice because of an injury.
After the man gives the 999 operator Barrymore’s address he tells them: ‘A geezer’s drowned in the pool’.
They ask if he is still in the water, to which the man replies: ‘No, we’ve got them out.’
He adds: ‘There’s a party going on and someone’s just gone out and found him.’
The party-goer tells the call handler he has not gone out to a party in four years because of his childcare duties before adding: ‘F***ing hell, you don’t expect it do you.’
Chillingly, as he waits for the ambulance to arrive, he adds: ‘I think the geezer’s dead mate.’
It comes as Mr Barrymore’s ex-lover Jonathan Kenney told friends he ‘had a good time’ on the night of Mr Lubbock’s death.
The presenter’s ex-lover, 49, revealed to friends: ‘We all had a really good time,’ in reference to the fateful house party at Mr Barrymore’s mansion according to The Sun.
The coach driver is now in a relationship with a new man.
Channel 4 director of programmes Ian Katz said: ‘This remarkable film, with never-before-seen police evidence and exclusive interviews with those involved in the investigation, reminds us that, 19 years on, no one has yet been held accountable for the tragedy.’
The programme will piece together the perspectives of the Lubbock family, as well as those of the detectives, forensic pathologists and eyewitnesses to explore what happened that night at Barrymore’s Essex bungalow, and the events that followed.
Mr Lubbock’s father, Terry, said: ‘This documentary is about the questions around what happened to my son, Stuart Lubbock. Finally. The story has become so distorted and confused over the years. So much has been said and written.
‘It’s time to put all the facts together in one place.’
Pictured: Stuart Lubbock
Channel 4 commissioning editor Alisa Pomeroy said: ‘This film is a reflective piece that tells the story of an unexplained tragedy that unfolded in the glare of an unforgiving media.
‘It sheds light on the complex relationship between celebrity, the criminal justice system and an all-powerful tabloid press in the early Noughties, but, most of all, it’s the deeply moving story of the Lubbock family’s continuing quest for answers and justice, nearly 20 years on.’
Barrymore last year spoke out about the death of Mr Lubbock, telling Piers Morgan’s ITV show Life Stories that he ‘couldn’t be more sorry’ for his behaviour that night, and that he is ‘100 per cent innocent’.
Barrymore: The Body In The Pool will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight.
Barrymore last year spoke out about the death of Mr Lubbock, telling Piers Morgan’s ITV show Life Stories that he ‘couldn’t be more sorry’ for his behaviour that night, and that he is ‘100 per cent innocent’