An inquest into the apparent suicide of renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck in South Africa four years ago is set to be reopened, his former employer reported on Monday.


English-born Roebuck, 55, was covering the Test series between South Africa and Australia in 2011 when he plunged to his death from the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town. South African police said he leapt out of a sixth floor window after two officers arrived to arrest him over a claim of sexual assault by a Zimbabwean man.


Australia's Fairfax Media said his family had since dealt with obstructionism from authorities with a closed hearing in Cape Town into the circumstances of the death in 2013 about which neither they nor the continent's largest law firm, which represents them, were notified, The newspaper group, which had employed Roebuck since 1984, claimed access to any forensic evidence taken from the hotel room was denied, as was a police toxicology report and fingerprints from the window, while requests for his mobile phone were rejected.


Roebuck's 87-year-old mother Elizabeth said that as a result she has never had questions answered about how he died while in the custody of two police officers. -- AFP