Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Stephen Milligan was found dead Monday afternoon in his London house after associates had been unable to reach him all day.
Police called the death suspicious but would not confirm or deny widespread newspaper reports that the 45-year-old bachelor was found wearing only women's stockings and a garter belt, with an electric cord around his neck and a plastic bag over his head.
Scotland Yard said they had not determined the cause of death.
Newspapers speculated about the sexual context of the death. Theories include murder and indulgence in the dangerous practice of starving oneself of oxygen to heighten sexual pleasure.
Some newspaper reports said he was strangled. Others said he suffocated. Still others said he was found bound and gagged.
Milligan's parliamentary secretary, Vera Taggert, found the body when she went to his house after he failed to show up at the House of Commons and did not answer the telephone.
A former British Broadcasting Corp. journalist, Milligan won his seat in the 1992 general election and had already reached the first step up the ministerial ladder as parliamentary private secretary to Defense Minister Jonathan Aitken.
"Stephen Milligan was a rising parliamentary star," Aitken said. "His sterling character, his intellectual ability and his formidable talent as a communicator had already marked him out for a distinguished political career."
Milligan's death will force an unwelcome special election to fill his seat at a time when the party's popularity is at a low ebb and has a slim 18-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons. - Associated Press
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB