Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck plunged to his death from a hotel window in South Africa after being questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault, his employer said on Monday. The English-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first-class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia when he died on Saturday night. South African police confirmed he committed suicide and the Australian newspaper group he worked for, Fairfax Media, said he fell to his death from the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town.
Roebuck had written on cricket for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne since 1984, and the newspapers said his death followed questioning by police from the sexual crimes unit about an alleged sexual assault. They provided no further details although. Fairfax said Roebuck was agitated and asked a fellow cricket journalist for help. “Can you come down to my room quickly? I’ve got a problem,” he said and asked for help to find a lawyer. Fairfax said it was believed a uniformed police officer was in the room at the time.
