Gay rights campaigner calls for inquiry into Alan Turing's death

The code-breaker Alan Turing pardoned him to stop leaking information to the Soviets may have been killed by the security services, a leading gay rights activist has claimed.

An inquest at the time recorded a verdict of suicide. However, Mr Tatchell believes Turing was actually poisoned by British spy chiefs who were worried that his private life combined with an expert knowledge of code breaking, advanced mathematics and computer science put him at high risk of being blackmailed by enemy agents.

His claims come days after Turing received a posthumous royal pardon from the Queen, which overturned a 1952 conviction for homosexuality.

Mr Tatchell said: “The Government should open a new inquiry into the death of Alan Turing, including an investigation into the possibility he was murdered by the security services. The security services would have been very fearful that Turing was vulnerable to blackmail and anxious that he might pass information to the Soviets.

“There was an irrational, paranoid fear that other leading scientists might also aid the Soviets. Although there is no evidence that Turing was murdered by state agents, the fact that this possibility has never been investigated is a major failing. The original inquest was perfunctory and inadequate. Although it is said that he died from eating an apple laced with cyanide, the allegedly fatal apple was never tested for cyanide.

“A new inquiry is long overdue, even if only to dispel any doubts about the true cause of his death.”

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