the show's production team. Allegation and suicide In March 1998, a seventeen-year-old claimed to police that he had been sexually assaulted by Fashanu after a night of drinking. Homosexual acts were illegal in the US state of Maryland at the time, and the youth stated the act was not consensual but being performed as he awoke. The assault was alleged to have taken place in Fashanu's apartment in Ellicott City, Maryland, United States. Fashanu was questioned about this by the police on 3 April, but he was not held in custody. The police later arrived at his flat with a warrant to arrest him on charges of second-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault, and second-degree assault, but Fashanu had already fled to England. On the morning of 3 May, he was found hanged in a deserted lock-up garage he had broken into, in Fairchild Place, Shoreditch, London, after visiting Chariots Roman Spa, a local gay sauna. In his suicide note, he denied the charges, stating that the sex was consensual, and that he had fled to England because he felt he could not get a fair trial due to his homosexuality, and he added: "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family." An inquest held in London on 9 September heard evidence from a Scotland Yard detective that the Americans made no request for Fashanu to be found or arrested, and the Coroner stated that he was not a wanted man at the time he hanged himself. The Times and the BBC reported that an arrest warrant had been issued by Howard County District Court on 3 April, that he had been charged with second-degree sexual assault and first-degree and second-degree assaults punishable by up to twenty years in jail, and that Howard County police would have requested his extradition had they known he had fled to England. The inquest recorded a verdict of suicide. Fashanu's remains were cremated and a small ceremony was held at City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. John Fashanu later expressed regret for some of the comments he made when his brother came out. In an interview with talkSPORT in 2012, John Fashanu claimed his brother was not gay and was merely an "attention seeker". Legacy Fashanu was listed at number 99 in the Top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes in