Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius and codebreaker, may not have committed suicide, as is widely believed, claims an academic.

Jack Copeland is professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and has assembled theTuring Archive for the History of Computing.

He says the inquest into Turing's death did not do its job properly and the apple found near Mr Turing's body was never tested for cyanide.