Roebuck 'committed suicide', new details emerge
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One of world cricket's most outstanding careers has come to a tragic end.
Peter Roebuck, 55, was found dead at a Cape Town hotel on Sunday, with police confirming the death as suicide.
Reports from South Africa claim Roebuck threw himself out of a sixth-floor window at a hotel in Newlands, Cape Town. Australia's Herald Sun wrote that Roebuck 'landed on the awning outside the hotel entrance'.
However, a police statement read the body was found 'inside' one of the rooms at the Southern Sun Hotel Newlands. England-born Roebuck was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia.
Captain Frederik van Wyk, spokesman for the South African Police in the Western Cape province, confirmed that a British citizen had been found in his room having committed suicide.
"I can confirm that the incident took place at a quarter past nine on Saturday," said van Wyk.
"A 55-year-old British citizen was found dead in a hotel room in Newlands, Cape Town. He was working as a cricket commentator for an Australian publication. He committed suicide.
"An inquest docket has been opened for investigation. I cannot say more at the moment."
He wouldn't confirm media reports that Roebuck was spoken to by local police earlier on Saturday and that people had seen him in agitated state following that.
It emerged that Roebuck was approached by Cape Town police investigating a sexual assault case.
In 2001, Roebuck received a suspended prison sentence in Britain 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.
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