EXPERT COMMENT LAST UPDATED : 04 FEBRUARY 2020
Elizabeth Yardley, Professor of Criminology at Birmingham City University, says cop culture has denied Stuart Lubbock of justice ahead of a Channel 4 documentary airing this week in which Essex Police admit making ‘crime scene mistakes’ in the investigation of his rape and murder at TV presenter Michael Barrymore’s home.
“That a rape and murder remains unsolved nearly two decades after the event is relatively rare,” said Professor Yardley.
“Murder is a crime that has one of the highest clear-up rates, in the majority of cases, a suspect is charged and a prosecution is undertaken. However, in cases that remain open, families go for years and decades without justice, knowing that the person who took the life of their loved one is still out there whilst the victim's life is one unlived.
“For me, what appears to be a significant factor here is the fact that Stuart Lubbock was raped before he was murdered. He suffered horrific anal injuries. How these circumstances were interpreted is likely to be the explanation for the case remaining unsolved.
“Criminologists have long talked about 'cop culture', characterised by hyper-masculinity and misogyny. This was very much still with us in the early 2000s. It was culture underpinned by 'traditional' models of masculinity and femininity, men were tough and stoic, and women were subservient outsiders. Indeed, the prefix WPC (woman police constable) was only dropped two years prior to Mr Lubbock's murder.
“Homophobia was rampant within cop culture - the hardened, heterosexual alpha male being the 'normal' masculinity against which all others were judged. The ‘police officer’ was the very embodiment of hegemonic masculinity. This culture valued men who were stoic and tough, men could look after themselves. These men did not become victims, especially of sexual violence. Those who did were 'less than' men, their vulnerability and victimization considered unnatural and abnormal. As such, their status as victims was denied. They were held responsible for the harms that others inflicted upon them.”
“The traditional patriarchal standard of the dominant alpha male combined with neoliberal notions of individual responsibility and independence to deny and minimise the sexual victimisation of men at this time. Mr Lubbock has been denied justice not because of anything he did or didn't do, but because of the misogynistic, patriarchal, homophobic cultural hangover that blighted the police service in the early 2000s.
“Had Mr Lubbock been an attractive middle class woman, this case would have been treated very differently, by the police and society. Such 'ideal victims' attract considerable sympathy and concern, they are seen as wholly innocent and undeserving of the harms others have inflicted upon them. The mainstream media and the general public demand justice because such cases amplify our sense of risk, if such a pure and virtuous individual could be a victim of such an horrendous crime, then couldn't any of us?
“The same sympathy is not extended to victims like Stuart Lubbock who are easily stigmatised and responsibilised. What was he doing at that party? Had he been drinking or taking drugs? Surely he could have stood up for himself? That's what a 'proper man' would have done. He wouldn't have let someone do that to him. This victim-blaming serves to take the emphasis away from the perpetrator's decision to inflict such harm. That person is still out there and will have harmed other people in the last 19 years. I am in no doubt that they hurt others before Mr Lubbock's murder too.
“The capacity to commit such a fatal attack doesn't emerge overnight, it is years in the making, a gradual escalation of violent behaviour in an attempt to feel in control by dominating, humiliating and abusing others. That will not have magically disappeared on killing Mr Lubbock. He will not have been the only victim of this perpetrator's violence.
“The dark side of cop culture is unfortunately still with us today. Serious questions were asked of the Metropolitan Police in the aftermath of the Stephen Port case. Gay rights activists claimed that the investigations into the deaths of Gabriel Kovari, Anthony Walgate, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor reeked of homophobia. Following an IOPC report, no individual officers were disciplined in relation to their conduct during the initial stages of the investigation. But they wouldn't have been. That's not where the root of the problem is.
“Poor standards in individual officers are symptoms of institutional cultures that place a higher value on some victims than others. In turn, those cultures stem from broader social currents which remain stubbornly patriarchal, misogynistic and homophobic. Neoliberalism has served to reinforce these discriminatory value systems, championing personal responsibility and creating a false level playing field of sovereign individualism. It’s up to us to look after ourselves, to safeguard against becoming a victim of crime, crime prevention is all about responsibilisation. This justifies the state stepping back from its role as a protector and obscures the entrenched structural inequalities that underpin serious harms like that inflicted upon Stuart Lubbock.”
‘Barrymore: The Body In The Pool’ airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday 6 February.