No Charges in Stephen Hawking Abuse Probe
Mon Mar 29,10:41 AM ET
CAMBRIDGE, England - Police on Monday announced they would close their investigation into possible abuse of famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, saying they found no evidence he was mistreated.
AFP/File Photo
Hawking was questioned by detectives earlier this month about alleged abuses that reportedly left him with a series of unexplained injuries.
"I can find no evidence to substantiate any assertion that anyone has perpetrated any criminal acts against Professor Hawking," said Detective Superintendent Michael Campbell, who led the investigation.
"This matter has now been brought to a close," he added.
Hawking has dismissed allegations that he was assaulted or abused at his home in Cambridge as "completely false." Stories in the British press have contained sometimes lurid allegations attributed to unidentified nurses and others who have cared for him.
Hawking, 62, is paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The police investigation followed reports published last year that he had suffered mysterious injuries, including a broken wrist, gashes to the face and a cut lip.
Police investigated similar allegations four years ago.
"My investigation into these allegations has been extremely thorough and detailed," Campbell said.
"I would emphasize that this inquiry has encompassed allegations from a previous investigation in 2000. The purpose of this had been to establish once and for all the position with regard to Professor Hawking."
The scientist, who divorced his first wife after 26 years, married his nurse, Elaine Mason, 53, in 1995. The two now live in Cambridge near the university.
His former wife, Jane Hawking, who wrote a memoir about their time together, has urged police to investigate the reported abuses he suffered. She recently said she and their three adult children have long suspected that he had suffered repeated, unexplained assaults, some of them reported by his full-time nurses, but that he refused to take action.
