Cricket commentator Peter Roebuck in sex case probe before death
Peter Roebuck, the world-famous cricketing Commentator and journalist tragically he took his own life at 9.15pm Saturday night by jumping out the window of his room on the sixth floor of the Southern Sun Newlands Hotel in Cape Town whilst being interviewed by police in relation to sexual assault allegations. He was in Cape Town covering the 1st test match between South Africa and Australia.
This opens many questions and the police there say an inquest could take weeks, months or years.THE QUESTION IS WHY DID THIS HAPPEN, OBVIOUSLY SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS HAD BEEN MADE FOR ROEBUCK TO MAKE A DECISION IN AN INSTANT TO GO TO HIS OPEN WINDOW AND JUMP TO HIS DEATH IN THE PRESENCE OF POLICE. Whatever our personal opinion is of his fantastic commentary and many columns he writes, the TRUTH must be told and not covered up because he is a famous person. If the media are prepared to splash anyone and everyone on the front pages they better tell the full story with Roebuck. he has been given slaps on the wrist for past problems with young teenagers maybe because of who he is, and his past may have caught up with him
UPDATED 15/11/2011 He obviously liked his “Whipping Boys” over there. Helping out the youth (Consider that a type of “Payment”) where we don’t hear about the complaints because they are so ‘grateful” for his help…More allegations are about to come out as more victims are now prepared to come forward as police take more statements. Shame he will be now remembered as a dirty old man who couldn’t keep his hands of boys…Interestingly HOW LONG HAS THE COMMENTARY/MEDIA/JOURNO’S KNOWN ABOUT HIS PARTICULAR PASTIMES AND DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT. OBVIOUSLY JIM MAXWELL DID! WHO ELSE????? HE HELD IN SUCH HIGH REGARD HE WAS A PROTECTED SPECIES IT SEEMS….
Peter Roebuck was a supporter of junior cricket., and young men it seems
When police confronted Roebuck in his hotel at about 9pm on Saturday, with the intention of making an arrest, the former Somerset captain allegedly asked to be allowed to change his clothes.
In the process he managed to move close to a window and jumped out.
Asked if he was aware of the complaint made against Roebuck, Maxwell said last night: “I was aware of that a while ago, yes. I know all about that, correct.”
Maxwell said he did not speak to Roebuck personally about the sexual assault claim.
“He never got to talk about it, I wasn’t allowed to talk about that, it was never mentioned,” he said.
“But he was in a highly agitated state so you can read what you want from that.”
Maxwell said he was mystified as to how Roebuck managed to jump from his hotel-room window so quickly.
“I’m not sure how it happened. He was sitting in a chair when I walked out of the room,” Maxwell, who gave “a very lengthy statement” to Cape Town detectives, said yesterday.
South African police authorities will await a post-mortem report before stepping up investigations.
“An inquest can take a long time, it can be anything from six months to two or three years, but what is critical here is to get the autopsy reports, or what we call the post-mortem report,” Naidoo said this morning.
“We will be looking at that first and that can take four to six weeks, sometimes up to eight weeks. When we get that report, we can determine officially what his cause of death was.
“There is no crime suspected as far as Mr Roebuck’s death is concerned.
“If someone dies of unnatural causes and there isn’t suspicion of a crime being committed, then we conduct an inquest.
“In this time, we will undertake the normal investigation. We will take statements, we will await medical reports and that will form part of our investigation.”
Peter Roebuck in May 1981
In 2001, the former Somerset cricket captain was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting caning three young cricketers he had offered to coach.
Roebuck, of Exmouth in Devon, pleaded guilty to three charges of common assault involving three South African teenagers between 1 April and 31 May, 1999.
He had pleaded not guilty to three counts of causing actual bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Roebuck was sentenced to four months in jail for each count, with the sentences suspended for two years, at Taunton Crown Court.
Judge Graham Hume Jones told Roebuck he had abused his power and influence over the boys, who were far from home and far from friends and family.
For help or information about depression and other mental health issues visit beyondblue.org.au or call Lifeline on 131 114; Victorian Statewide Suicide Helpline on 1300 651 251; or Mensline Australia on 1300 789 978
Peter Michael Roebuck (6 March 1956 – 12 November 2011) was an English cricketer, newspaper columnist and radio commentator. Between 1986 and 1988, he was the captain of the English county side Somerset. During 1989, Roebuck also captained an England XI one-day cricket team that lost to the Netherlands.
On 12 November 2011, Roebuck jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a hotel in Cape Town. He was visiting Cape Town to report on a Test Match between South Africa and Australia for the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Playing career
Tall, bespectacled and of bookish appearance, Roebuck was a right-handed batsman, often used as an opener, and occasionally bowled right-arm offspin. He played for Somerset’s second eleven at the age of 13 and regular first-class cricket from 1974 until his retirement in 1991. He later played Minor Counties cricket for Devon.
In 335 first-class matches he scored 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27, making 33 centuries with a highest score of 221* and took 72 wickets at 49.16. In 298 one day matches he scored 7244 runs at 29.81 while taking 51 wickets at 25.09.
Roebuck was named as Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1988.
Columnist
His journal of the 1983 season, It Never Rains, established him as one of cricket’s finest journalists.
Roebuck wrote columns for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age and Cricinfo, as well as commentating for the ABC radio cricket coverage in Australia. He was known for wearing his trademark straw sunhat at all times, even in the commentary box.
He liked the egalitarian approach of the Australian Cricket Board.
He felt there was too much nationalism in cricket writing and it should be avoided when analysing the game. He was one of the few global voices in the game without allegiance to any nation, team or player.
He was one of the last journalists in cricket to acquire a laptop and mobile phone and found them quite useful
Roebuck was often critical of the Australian cricket team and, in particular, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting. Following Australia’s narrow victory in the second Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2007–08, Roebuck accused the Australians of “bad sportsmanship and triumphalism”, describing the Australian team as a “pack of wild dogs” and claiming that Ponting has “shown not the slightest interest in the well-being of the game, not the slightest sign of diplomatic skills, not a single mark of respect for his accomplished and widely admired opponents.
Roebuck was described as an astute judge of cricketers, contrarian, master wordsmith and his writing was described as lean, erudite, fluent, perceptive, vibrant
Personal life
Roebuck spent his last years residing in Straw Hat Farm, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, as well as Bondi, Sydney, Australia He grew estranged from England and became an Australian citizen. His colleague Malcolm Knox said of Roebuck that “nothing could rile him more, after he became an Australian citizen, than to be described as an Englishman of any kind, even a former one.”
Peter was estranged from his family and did not talk about them much.In 2005 his father wrote that Peter is an “unconventional loner with an independent outlook on life, an irreverent sense of humour and sometimes a withering tongue.”
He was a solitary and complex manwho preferred to read a book while eating alone rather than spend time in the company of his colleagues.
He lived an austere life, even doing without deodorant. Very few possessions were found in his hotel room after his death
Assault conviction
In 1999, while working as a commentator in South Africa, Roebuck met three cricketers, all aged 19, and offered to coach them, inviting them to live at his home in England. He warned them beforehand that he would use corporal punishment if they failed to obey his “house rules”. He caned all three men on their bare buttocks at different times for misbehaviour and in 2001 was given a suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to three charges of common assault. He told the court, “Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility and I accept that.Henk Lindeque, one of Mr Roebuck’s victims, said, “I haven’t had any contact with him since the trial. The problem was not so much that he caned us but wanted to examine the marks. That’s when I decided to get out of his house.”
Death
At 9.15pm on 12 November 2011, Roebuck died after jumping from the sixth floor of the Southern Sun Hotel in Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa. He landed on the awning outside the entrance to the hotel. It is reported that Roebuck jumped from the hotel room while a Cape Town detective and a uniformed police officer from the sexual crimes unit were questioning him Roebuck’s body was taken to a mortuary in the early hours of the next morning. A statement issued by South African police confirmed that Roebuck had committed suicide
Related articles
- Writer fell to his death (theage.com.au)
- Peter Roebuck obituary (guardian.co.uk)
- Writer questioned, then fell to his death (theage.com.au)
- Peter Roebuck found dead (furiouspurpose.me)
- Peter Roebuck: Former Somerset captain found dead aged 55 (mirror.co.uk)
