Peter Tatchell, an active gay rights campaigner, is seeking to start investigation on the death of computer science expert and code-breaker Alan Turing. He believes that Turing did not commit suicide and was really murdered by British security services.
Turing played a pivotal role in the World War II when he succeeded in breaking the Nazi enigma code. As an expert in computer science and mathematics, he used his skill to help the British government topple Germany. After the war in 1954, he died of what the police said to be an apparent suicide by eating a cyanide-poisoned apple.
However, Tatchell believes that the story was fabricated. Turing was convicted of homosexuality in 1952 and he believed that the British government feared that enemy forces might use Turing’s private life to blackmail him to use his talents for their interests.
Tatchell told Express UK: “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.”
Tatchell’s call to reopen the investigations came after the Queen announced on Christmas Eve that she’s giving pardon to Turing, effective immediately. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling told Express UK that Turing should be “remembered and recognised for his fantastic contribution to the war effort.”
To which, Tatchell responded in Express UK saying: “Singling out Turing for a royal pardon just because he was a great scientist and very famous is wrong. At least 50,000 other men were convicted under the same law. They have never been offered a pardon and will never get one. Selective redress is a bad way to remedy an ¬historic injustice.”
Turing is the mind behind the “bombe” machines which he used to process millions of combinations for the Enigma code. Historians said that if it weren’t for Turing’s work, the war could have lasted longer.
