The ABC's Jim Maxwell has confirmed that Peter Roebuck was about to be detained over an alleged sexual assault when he leapt to his death from his Cape Town hotel.
Maxwell says police subsequently confirmed to him they were there to detain Roebuck over an alleged sexual assault on a Zimbabwean man in his twenties.
Maxwell says that shortly before falling to his death, Roebuck telephoned him in an extremely agitated and desperate state, telling his friend and fellow commentator he needed help in finding a lawyer.
"I'm sure what happened was triggered by the visit of the police and the fact that they were going to charge him with an alleged sexual assault, which meant he was going to be detained and would then have to appear in court on Monday," Maxwell told AM.
"This is what I discovered when I went to his room after he made a very agitated, dramatic, despairing phone call to my room.
"He was absolutely on edge. And when I arrived the detective came out and filled me in on the detail.
"It was then that I asked if I could speak to him and he said 'Well, just for a moment', because clearly they didn't want their case compromised in some way, I suppose, by what he may have said to me.
"So I only had a few moments with him. He was desperate to get in touch with all those students that were in his care in Pietermaritzburg. He didn't have a phone number."
Maxwell says he then left the room, along with one of the two policemen who had been sent to detain Roebuck.
"I'm trying to piece this together, but I'd say that it [Roebuck's death] probably happened fairly quickly," he said.
"If it's the case that there was only one policeman in the room, I'm inclined to the belief that sadly, when I left the room and the detective came out with me, because I wanted to get his mobile phone number so I could ring him, that it may have occurred there and then.
"Because I then moved down the corridor to speak to one of my colleagues, and I was standing in the doorway telling him what had occurred, and within a matter of a minute I could hear outside the lift the detective talking on his mobile phone to someone about how there'd been a complication. And in trying to make out what he was saying it sounded like someone had gone out the window and that person, sadly, was dead."
Maxwell said he did not discuss the sexual assault allegations with Roebuck before his death.
"He didn't say anything about them. Obviously it was a matter I would loved to have pursued with him, but I don't think the police wanted that talked about. They really just wanted me to be able to make some contact with other people. That's as far as it got."
Roebuck helped many young Zimbabweans through his LBW (Learning for a Better World) Trust, helping them with their schooling in Pietermaritzburg.
"It was his family. This was his family," Maxwell said.
"So it was a very powerful connection. And he tipped money out of his pockets for these people at the drop of a hat to the point that he probably spent more money than he earned on making sure that they got ahead in life."
Maxwell admitted he was concerned about how his friend would be remembered.
"I am a little, but I think it's important for people to realise that he was a remarkably brilliant person, an unbelievably good writer on the game who could write off 1,000 words at the drop of a hat," he said.
"He was also an outstanding commentator and brought some diversity of opinion to the ABC's coverage. And as I say, I think he was a very caring human being. He really did have strong motivation for a better world.
"So, that's how I'm going to remember him. And as a friend, unfortunately, I no longer have."
Roebuck skippered English county Somerset in the 1980s before beginning a long media career, primarily working for the ABC and Fairfax.
He travelled regularly with the Australian cricket team and split the rest of his year living between Sydney and Pietermaritzburg.
But his personal life hit the headlines in 2001 when he received a suspended prison sentence in England for common assault for caning three South African teenage cricketers who had stayed with him in 1999.
Roebuck had caned them on their buttocks - he said he had warned them he would resort to corporal punishment - when they failed to meet his exacting standards during coaching sessions.
"Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility and I accept that," he said at the time.
ABC/wires
Tags: cricket, sport, sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, suicide, south-africa, australia First posted November 15, 2011 06:54:10
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