The death of former cricketer and journalist Peter Roebuck, who died in mysterious circumstances in Cape Town in 2011, is to be reviewed.
It is understood South Africa’s Director of Public Prosecutions in the Western Province has begun examining the findings of the original closed inquest into the death of Peter Roebuck. The original inquest had taken place without any representatives of the former Somerset captain, writer and broadcaster or his family being informed.
The original inquest file had been requested for review by the DPP advocate Julius Mornay more than 18 months ago, and, in the intervening months, was said by the police force concerned to have been lost. It was apparently finally located earlier in December. SAcricketmag.com reported in August 2015 that the case was being reactivated.
Roebuck fell to his death from his hotel room window in Cape Town in November 2011, while he was in the country to cover Australia’s Test series against South Africa. A police statement at the time said Roebuck’s death was a suicide. But his family and its legal representatives have persisted in their search for more clarity surrounding his death.
On the night of his death, Roebuck had been confronted by South African police from Claremont station with allegations of sexual assault, made by a Zimbabwean man. The police claim that Roebuck leapt from his hotel window.
A closed inquest was reported to have been completed in February 2013.
Since then, the Roebuck family has persisted in trying to have the inquest revisited.
Areas likely to be probed in any new inquest would include wider use of forensic evidence, including fingerprints taken by police at the hotel on the night but not produced before the magistrate who conducted the original inquest and concluded that Roebuck had died from “multiple injuries” without explicitly stating how those injuries came about.
At the time of his death Roebuck was a long-time cricket writer for Business Day Sport Monthly, which was published by Highbury Media, which also produces SACricket and SACricketmag.com.
