Was Justin Fashanu Death Cause A Suicide? Blackpool Footballer Came Out In 1990

Justin Fashanu death cause was reported as suicide in a fright that he would not receive a fair trial against sexual allegations stunned the world in 1998. He died at the age of 37.

According to his profile on Wikipedia, following his arrival in the United States, he was detained by police in 1998 after a seventeen-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault.

He was charged on 3 April 1998, and a warrant for his arrest was issued in Howard County, Maryland, but he had already left his apartment.

Fashanu feared that he would not receive a fair trial because of his homosexuality, and he fled to England.

Fashanu committed suicide in London in May 1998 and stated in his suicide note that the sex was voluntary.

Justin was honored in the Hall of Fame of the National Football Museum in 2020.

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The Blackpool forward Jake Daniels has become the UK’s first professional male football player to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990. Let's hope any lingering homophobic footy fans show some respect.https://t.co/IbR5x0GSdG

— GET A GRIP (@docrussjackson) May 16, 2022

Blackpool footballer Justin Fashanu was the first player to come out as gay in 1990. However, despite having consensual sex with a teenager in the USA, he committed suicide in London due to his fright. 

In England and Wales, same-sex marriages became legal in 2013.

Gareth Thomas, a Welsh rugby union player, came out in 2009, and ex-footballers Thomas Beattie and Robbie Rogers came out after retiring from the sport.

Fashanu was born in the United Kingdom to a Nigerian barrister and a Guyanese nurse named Pearl.

Justin and his younger brother John were sent to a Barnardo's care home when their parents divorced.

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It was on this day in 1998 that Justin Fashanu took his own life.

There can be no denying his talent as a footballer (see Norwich City v Liverpool, 1980) but his tragically short life was blighted by homophobic abuse and tabloid harassment.

May he rest in power 🏳️‍🌈 pic.twitter.com/MZepAiMmGV

— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐒 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 (@RothmansYears) May 2, 2022

He and John were adopted by Alf and Betty Jackson when they were six years old and raised in Shropham, Norfolk.

Fashanu excelled at boxing as a child and was rumored to be considering a professional boxing career over his football career.