Peter Roebuck Suicide: Itai Gondo, A Sissy And Burying The Man
PETER Roebuck Suicide: When Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset cricket captain committed suicide, the media lost one of their own. Now Itai Gondo has something to say.
Greg Baum:
He was a loyal friend who felt the pain of others as acutely as only the highly intelligent do.
Tim Blair is cutting:
That’s why Roebuck caned teenage boys, presumably. Because he was so intelligent.
The investigation into why Roebuck leapt from the six-floor window of his South African hotel has not been included. But the Sun has all the facts it needs:
A STUDENT whose sex complaint sparked the suicide of ex-England cricketer Peter Roebuck told yesterday how he was “groomed” online.
That’s why he did it…says the Sun. Case closed.
Itai Gondo, 26, claimed TV pundit Roebuck spent days on Facebook luring him into a meeting, signing himself “dad” and offering to help with college fees. But Gondo told police he was subjected to a sex attack after meeting at a hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. And Roebuck, 55, leapt 70ft to his death after officers arrived to arrest him. The alleged victim, a cash-strapped refugee from Zimbabwe, was left so traumatised he considered taking his OWN life.
The Sun lays it on with a trowel.
IT student Gondo approached Roebuck through a uni pal who knew one of 17 “adopted sons” who live at the cricket expert’s home in Pietermaritzburg. He agreed to a meeting after a series of web chats, unaware Roebuck got a 2001 suspended sentence for beating three young men’s buttocks with a cane.
Google, Gondo. You work in IT. Google it.
During the exchanges, Roebuck — in Cape Town for a Test match — invited Gondo to call him “dad”, spoke of his devotion to his “sons” and offered his help. But when Gondo agreed to meet, he signed off saying: “OK my boy, bring stick in case I need to beat you!”
Gondo claimed they chatted for two hours in a plush suite before Roebuck pinned him to the bed and launched a sickening sex assault. Gondo said: “I was in shock and told myself that it couldn’t be happening.”
The attack only stopped when Gondo’s phone rang and bachelor Roebuck apologised. The horrified student fled, but received a Facebook message from Roebuck next day saying: “Worried bout u, hope u ok.” Gondo replied days later, telling him: “One day the long arm of the law will catch up with your evil misdeeds.”
“‘I was so shocked I couldn’t fight him off and it makes me feel like a sissy and a pushover. This man took advantage of me,” Mr Gando told Mike Behr. ”He preyed on the fact that I was reaching out to him and trusted him and he did this to me.”
Sissy.
Mr Gando, who said he had not received any money for telling his story, claims he took his allegations to the police because he believed Roebuck might have assaulted other men.
The Zimbabwean said he was receiving counselling. In the days after the alleged incident, Mr Gando sent a Facebook message to Roebuck in which he referred to him as ”Mr Molester”.
He wrote: ”To lure me and pretend you were interested in forming some father like relationship, yet you intention was to do the sick, pervert disgusting things you did to me? Well mr roebuck, you can stuff whatever form of support you blatantly faked to be interested in.”
He added: ”I don’t need your assistance, I don’t shake hands with devil, don’t bother replying for I will block you after this message.”
Go on:
Roebuck would have been writing columns for Fairfax Media and commentating for ABC Radio alongside Jim Maxwell, who spoke of his friend’s ”remarkable gift of language”, his self-deprecation, and his ”downright contrariness”. ”We’ve all been lucky to share his wisdom, sense of humour, sense of justice. He was complex. Caring. Brilliant. So, Roebers. I raise my hat … we won’t forget you.’‘
And for anyone looking for a clever way with words:
Drew Morphett said Roebuck’s death had left a gaping hole in the commentary box.
Details of his last web posts revealed the personal turmoil that Roebuck, 55, might have been facing in the final hours of his life.
“We have a wonderful family and am proud of it,” he wrote. “Am not perfect but think the good outweighs the bad.”
The investigation continues…
Posted: 17th, November 2011 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
