Three men, including Michael Barrymore according to media reports, have been arrested on suspicion of murdering Stuart Lubbock, found dead in the openly-gay TV presenter's swimming pool in 2001. A 55-year-old man was detained in London, detectives said, declining to elaborate. The other two arrests were of a 37-year-old in the northeast and a 32 year-old in the Midlands. The men are also accused of serious sexual assault. Meat factory worker Lubbock, 31, was pronounced dead in hospital the morning after he was found at 55-year-old Barrymore's Essex mansion after a party in March 2001. Post mortem tests indicated Lubbock had drowned and an inquest recorded an open verdict on his death. The coroner said he had been found with drugs and alcohol in his system and with serious anal injuries, suggesting he had been the victim of a violent sexual assault. His father Terry always refused to accept the death was an accident and campaigned for the case to be re-examined. In December last year, detectives said they would reopen their probe, following a review. "There was, I think, an elaborate attempt to deceive the police and the pathologist," Terry Lubbock's lawyer told BBC TV. "I think there was no way this was a drowning. Something else very sinister happened that night." The scandal surrounding Lubbock's death destroyed Barrymore's once highly successful TV career. He left Britain for self-imposed exile in New Zealand in the wake of the negative publicity but made a successful return in 2006 when he appeared in the UK’s ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ reality TV show. When Essex police announced they would reopen their investigation he said he was "delighted and thrilled". "I've been asking for years for this to be done," he said. "I'm willing to do all I can to bring this matter to a correct and proper closure. This issue must be concluded for everybody's sake so that we can all carry on with our lives." Ref: Reuters (m)