Hanged spy sent letter on fetishes

DAYS before James Rusbridger, the former MI6 spy, was found dead, hanging from a rope in his Cornwall home on Wednesday wearing a long black oilskin-type coat and a gas mask, he wrote to ITN claiming that the sado- masochistic practices that Stephen Milligan appears to have been indulging in before his death are more common than most people suppose.

The Conservative MP for Eastleigh in Hampshire was found dead in his London home last week, naked apart from a pair of women's stockings, a black plastic bag over his head and an electrical flex bound around one ankle.

In his letter Mr Rusbridger, who said he was researching a book on the subject, claimed that the number of 'household names' - including television personalities and at least two members of the Royal Family - who bought sexual fetish equipment was 'amazing'.

And Mr Milligan's form of autoerotic asphyxiation, aimed at increasing sensation at orgasm, he added, was one of the most prevalent forms of sado-masochism.

Mr Rusbridger said he knew of a High Court judge who wrote detailed booklets about girls at German-run reformatories who were punished with bondage and whippings by matrons.