Cricket commentator and former Somerset captain Peter Roebuck has reportedly committed suicide (with a police officer present!!) by jumping from his sixth floor hotel room in Cape Town. He was being questioned at the time about an alleged sexual assult.

Given his criminal record, I'm not surprised that the comments elicited from various luminaries of the cricket world have been somewhat, erm, guarded.

More here and here.

There have been rumors and whispers about his "criminal" record for a long time. The only thing which is out in the open is that he had caned some boys he was coaching, some 10-15 years ago. Haven't heard anything besides that.

However, as a Cricket writer he was fantastic. I would especially visit the Fairfax website (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age etc.) to read him.

Whatever his personal and/or "criminal" life was, as a Cricket writer he was terrific.

This is what it was : "in 2001 Roebuck received a suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to common assault for punishing with a cane or bat three young South African cricketers he had been coaching. ''Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility and I accept that,'' he said.
"

You missed the bit where one of the victim's said he ran away when Roebuck wanted to inspect the wounds...

Did you get that snipped from the DT?

Great loss to Cricket fans. It was always refreshing to read his articles, which were insightful, (often) opinionated, but more importantly saying things loud where others kept quiet. Always entertaining. Following cricket from abroad won't be the same again. Ever.

Appears he was about to be arrested for sexually assaulting a Zimbabwean student. According to the DM anyway...

A newspaper columnists who was an outspoken critic of the Zimbabwean regime and the way it has ruined cricket in Zimbabwe, as well as of corruption in SA cricket, covers the SA-Australia test series. There is a test match where, if one of the teams involved had been Pakistan, most people would assume that Mr. Big from Mumbai made a couple of phone calls on THAT afternoon.

Enter a Zimbabwean student to make allegations of sexual assault. This goes not down well esp in a less than homosexual-friendly country like SA. The columnist falls to his death from his hotel room, while guarded by uniformed police. The police immediately know it's suicide and announce the death as such.

How convenient. Nearly as convenient as the mountain Hansi Cronje's plane flew into.

No I did not...I just cut and pasted from one report

I'm sure the man was guilty and that it was suicide.You seem to like
conspiracy theories.
As for your comment about homosexuality,it may still be frowned upon
amongst certain groups in SA but gay marriage is allowed in SA,one
of the few countries in the world..anyway,perhaps that's a bit off
topic..just my thoughts.

Oh, look, now there'll be an inquest, and it'll take "at least six weeks" to establish why he died. I would have thought falling from a sixth floor window would usually be fatal?

Roebuck in a state of despair: 'He just had a brain snap - that is all I can assume'

Liz Hannan, Erik Jensen

November 15, 2011

Roebuck 'a huge cricket intellect'
Veteran sports commentator and one-time ABC colleague, Tim Lane pays


PETER ROEBUCK was in a state of despair, sitting in a chair beside the window of his hotel room in Cape Town, when he was last seen alive by his friend and fellow cricket commentator Jim Maxwell.
A letter from Roebuck’s African son
It was just after 9 o'clock on Saturday night when Roebuck, 55, rang Maxwell - who was also staying on the sixth floor of the Southern Sun Hotel, Newlands - to ask him to hurry to his room.

"It takes five seconds to open that window" ... Maxwell. Photo: Tim Clayton

On arrival, Maxwell found two policemen and Roebuck stunned by news that a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man had accused him of sexual assault.
Maxwell was allowed to remain in the room for about two minutes, during which time Roebuck asked him to find a lawyer and contact the students he helps house in Pietermaritzburg, near Durban. Then police told Maxwell to leave.
Yesterday he refused to speculate on what might have happened in the few minutes that elapsed between his leaving the room and learning that Roebuck had fallen to his death at 9.15pm.
Peter Roebuck … painful memories of a conviction in 2001. Photo: Tim Clayton

He did not believe it was ''sinister'', despite reports that one officer left the room before the fall, leaving no one to corroborate the evidence of the other officer.
''Peter was in a state of utter despair. He was sitting in a chair, near the window and I can tell you it takes five seconds to open that window,'' Maxwell said.
''Given his state of mind, he just had a brain snap. That is all I can assume.''
As tributes continued to flow for a scholar of cricket, a man among the great sporting writers of a generation, a picture emerged of the last day of his life.
His friend Nic Kock, a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape and director of a local charity Sports Skills for Life Skills, told the Herald he met Roebuck at noon. They spent the afternoon watching two local cricket matches in the company of young people Roebuck supports financially. Later the men shared a beer with the players. ''He was, in a matter of fact, in a very cheerful mood the whole day,'' Mr Kock said. ''That's what caught my ear. He just seemed very happy.
''We chatted cricket. We talked about the future. There was no sense of stress.''
Mr Kock dropped Roebuck back to the hotel at 8.50pm and departed. Roebuck walked into the lobby alone to find a Cape Town detective and a uniformed officer from the sexual crimes unit waiting. They told him the complainant had alleged an assault had occurred in the hotel six days earlier, two days before the start of the first Test between Australia and South Africa, which Roebuck was covering for the Herald and the ABC.
The officers accompanied him to his room, from where he fell to his death 25 minutes later, onto an awning outside the lobby.
The Herald cricket writer Greg Baum and Peter Lalor of The Australian were dining together at a restaurant when Maxwell told them of the tragedy. They went to the morgue where Lalor offered to identify the body, to spare Baum, a Fairfax colleague.
''Peter Lalor was incredibly brave in the circumstances,'' Baum said.
Those who knew Roebuck best - and few claim to have known the intensely private man well - believe the assault allegation triggered painful memories of his conviction on common assault charges in 2001.
He pleaded guilty to using a cane or bat to hit the buttocks of three young South African cricketers staying in his home.
The court case made headlines around the world.
Roebuck felt deep shame but also a sense of betrayal. He had agreed to plead guilty to limit the coverage his profile was bound to attract - and still did.
Mr Kock has taken possession of the death certificate and will handle arrangements, which may include a memorial in Australia.
Until then Maxwell, who was at the airport awaiting a flight to Johannesburg for the second Test which begins on Thursday, said those who admired Roebuck would cope with their loss ''one step at a time''.
One admirer, Psychology Maziwisa, was an orphan when he met Roebuck, who paid for his education. ''Whatever the precise circumstances of his death, he has left the world a better place,'' Maziwisa wrote in a tribute to the Herald.

Roebuck sexually assaulted me: student
November 17, 2011 - 3:13PM
Cricket's Peter Roebuck

A student claims cricket writer Peter Roebuck met him through Facebook and sexually assaulted him in a South Africa hotel room, a British media report says.

Itai Gondo's claims were the subject of a South African police investigation that appeared to have sparked the suicide of Roebuck.

Mr Gondo, 26, said the former English cricketer spent days talking to him on the social networking site, The Sun reported today.

Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Gondo said he approached Roebuck through a university friend who knew one of 17 boys who lived in a 10-bedroom home called Sunrise in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province, managed by the writer.

He alleged that during the online conversations, Roebuck said Mr Gondo could call him "dad", spoke of what he did for his "sons" and had offered to help him with his university fees.

He claimed when he agreed to meet Roebuck, he wrote: "OK my boy, bring stick in case I need to beat you!"

The pair then allegedly met in a hotel suite. Mr Gondo said they spoke for two hours before Mr Roebuck allegedly sexually assaulted him on a bed.

"I was in shock and told myself that it couldn't be happening," Mr Gondo told The Sun, adding that the alleged attack stopped when his mobile phone rang.

The newspaper said Mr Gondo was a poor Zimbabwe refugee and was so traumatised by his experience he wanted to kill himself.

The next day, Mr Gondo said Roebuck sent him a Facebook message: "Worried bout u, hope u ok", to which he replied some days later: "One day the long arm of the law will catch up with your evil misdeeds."

Mr Gondo said he told police what happened.

"He has ruined my life," Mr Gondo said.

The Sun said Mr Gondo was not paid for his story and that he spoke out to counter the gossip around his relationship with Roebuck.

The newspaper published a photograph of Mr Gondo with his back to the camera.

smh.com.au



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/...#ixzz1dxJSrhys

Very disappointingly, there obviously seems to be very murky side to all this. We will never understand why some people behave the way they do. However, as a Cricket writer he was one of the best. RIP.

Forensic experts to find if bedsheet samples match Roebuck's DNA
PTI | Nov 20, 2011, 12.38PM IST

Zimbabwean Itai Gondo had lodged a sexual assault complaint against Peter Roebuck and Forensic analysis will ascertain whether the samples match Roebuck's DNA, the Herald Sun reported. (AFP Photo)
MELBOURNE: In a new twist to the inquest into Peter Roebuck's death, forensic experts will investigate whether the DNA samples taken from a bedsheet match that of the celebrated cricket writer who was facing allegations of sexual assault before committing suicide.

The 55-year-old Roebuck, who is believed to have jumped to death from the sixth floor of his hotel room in Cape Town, is alleged to have left DNA on to a bedspread while attempting to have sex with Zimbabwean man Itai Gondo.

Gondo had lodged a sexual assault complaint against Roebuck and Forensic analysis will ascertain whether the samples match Roebuck's DNA, the Herald Sun reported.

The 26-year-old IT student, Gondo accused Roebuck of playing mind games and said the journalist was "the architect of his own demise".

"As far as I am concerned he took his own life because he didn't want to face the law," he told a South African newspaper.

"He didn't want to face up to what he did. So it's not my problem. He is the architect of his own demise," said Gondo, who was taken to a Cape Town hospital by South African police after Roebuck's death to collect his DNA and blood samples.

Gondo said he was having nightmares and felt suicidal and shared the whole incident with a friend.

"The more I thought through it, I realised I wanted my day in court so I could move on," he said.

"I kept thinking if I keep quiet what if he does the same thing to another guy? Then I'm going to regret it knowing that I could have stopped this person in his tracks.

"I was feeling suicidal. I was hiding out in my room. I couldn't eat and was having nightmares. In desperation I messaged a very good friend in New York who is like a big brother and told him what had happened.

"I told him I feel violated as a man...that I was shocked I couldn't fight him off and it makes me feel like a sissy and a pushover.

"This man took advantage of me. He preyed on the fact that I was reaching out to him and trusted him and he did this to me," he added.

Gondo, who deactivated his facebook account following Roebuck's death, had written a final private message to the celebrated journalist on the day he committed suicide.

The message read: "It's funny how you ask me how I am doing as if what you did to me you find that justifiable?

"So that was your intention all along? To lure me and pretend you were interested in forming some father-like relationship, yet your intention was to do the sick, pervert disgusting thing you did to me?

"Well Mr Roebuck, you can stuff whatever form of support you blatantly faked to be interested in. You have greatly humiliated me and I feel very violated, disgusted with myself, your acts were of the purest, sickest kind.

"It makes sense why you pretend to help out orphans, whilst you prey on their financial difficulty for your perverted satisfaction.

"I shudder to even think what sick sex-related things you're doing to those 17 boys staying with you!

"I don't need your assistance, I don't shake hands with the devil, don't bother replying for I will block you after this message.

"One day the long arm of the law will catch up with your evil misdeeds, rest assured, and then all the money in the world won't save you.

"Goodbye, Mr Molester and good riddance!" However, one of several young men whom Roebuck supported in his adult orphanage in South Africa, Tatenda Chadya, said the claims made by Gondo were unbelievable.

"He just wanted to see people's dreams come true. He was a father to us," Chadya, who is one of 16 students Roebuck took into his home in Pietermaritzburg, was quoted as saying in the Timeslive.

A former caretaker at Roebuck's house, Andrew Dickason said: "All of us are shocked and saddened. He was a really nice guy, his kindness was an inspiration."