Levi Davis missing - latest news: Family issue fresh appeals to rugby star to come home

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the search for British rugby star Levi Davis, who disappeared in Spain 11 days ago.

Fears continue to grow for British rugby player Levi Davis, 24, who remains missing more than a week after disappearing in Barcelona, Spain.

A former Bath winger originally from Birmingham, Mr Davis most recently turned out for Worthing Raiders in the National League 2 South but is also well known for his appearances on ITV’s Celebrity X Factor and E4’s Celebs Go Dating.

He was last seen at The Old Irish Pub near the Rambla dels Caputxins tourist area of the Catalan city at around 10.05pm the evening of Saturday 29 October, having arrived in the city from Ibiza by ferry saying he was intending to meet up with friends.

Mr Davis was spotted on CCTV at the venue carrying a small black rucksack and wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt, black trousers, and black and white trainers.

It is reportedly feared he may have left Ibiza without clothes, money or medication he has been prescribed.

Here is Laura Parnaby’s report.

Levi Davis’s old side has appealed for help in finding him on social media - as have a number of fellow players and team mates including Tom Varndell and Freddie Burns.

Ex-England rugby star Ben Foden, a close friend of Mr Davis who appeared alongside him on X Factor, meanwhile told The Sun: “I’m extremely concerned for Levi’s safety and well-being.

“He’s a kindhearted, talented soul who I’m proud to call a friend. He’s bravely shared with the public his personal struggles with his sexuality and mental health and right now it’s important he knows how loved he is and the support he has available.

“Anyone with any information or sightings please email: findlevidavis@gmail.com.”

Levi Davis is known to have suffered mental health issues in the past and came out as bisexual in September 2020, telling The Mail on Sunday in an interview that he had suffered anxiety and depression over his sexuality but had been moved by the emotional support he had received from his Bath teammates when he told them in a group WhatsApp message.

"I want to be open and honest with you boys, as friends and team-mates,” he said in the text. “I’m bisexual. I have known since I was 18. None of you lot are on my radar... so it’s OK!”

He later told the newspaper: “Sometimes I feel it would be easier if I was gay and nothing else. Then I could identify myself and it would be easier to explain. As it is, I’m in a kind of vacuum. My family have reservations about me going public, but they love me and they support me."

Speaking about Mr Davis’s disappearance to ITV News this week, Mr Varndell said: “The fact that he hasn't made contact with anybody since the 29 October, not even his mum, is extremely worrying right now. It is so out of character for Levi to not make any contact whatsoever.”

He added: ”He suffers massively from depression and he does have bouts of feeling very low and down and I think that's on the back of him. There's definitely some issues that he's been battling at the moment and for a while around his mental health.”

The missing man’s mother, Julie Davis, 51, told MailOnline this week that an anterior cruciate ligament injury was among a number of factors that had conspired to cause a crisis in her son’s life of late.

“There have been a lot of issues going on for Levi recently which he shared with me. I think it was a build up of these things which eventually just blew his mind,” she said.

“Rugby has not been the best at looking after Levi and he’s suffered a lot of racial prejudice. He didn’t have a club and was also recently having money worries. At the same time there was some very deep emotional stuff around relationships that I can’t really go into.”

She added: “It seems as if everything just got too much for him and it’s led to Levi going missing. He’s had mental issues in the past but it seems as if this time he’s not been able to handle them.”

Ms Davis also told the same site about two possible sightings of her son in Spain.

“A Spanish woman saw him on the beach in Sitges and noticed him after seeing all the media publicity about his disappearance,” she said.

“She said he looked homeless and dishevelled and when she tried to speak to him, he ignored her and walked away.

“In the other sighting he was sitting in a doorway in Barcelona. The sightings are a bit of positive news at a difficult time for the family.”

The missing man’s sister, Candeece Balfour, 23, has also expressed concern for his welfare, telling The Daily Mirror: “I just want to tell him that I love him. I want to remind him and if anything, he knows that my mum of all people is the person he can go to.

“I just want him to come home and any support he needs, we can be there.”

As first reported by journalists Gerard Couzens and Natalia Penza, police in Barcelona said on Sunday night that they had yet to start looking for Mr Davis because they were awaiting official confirmation that he is missing, placing further pressure on them from concerned friends, relatives and well-wishers to begin the search in earnest.

“We are aware of the news of this man’s disappearance from press reports and social media but are still awaiting official notification he is missing,” a spokeswoman for the regional Mossos d’Esquadra force in Barcelona said.

“It appears he was reported missing by his family in the UK but that notification has not yet reached us.

“We cannot launch a formal investigation until it does but are working on the basis that it may reach us later today.

“Investigators will then be tasked with looking into what might have happened and trying to ascertain among other things whether it’s a voluntary disappearance or could be linked to a crime.

“That work will likely involve talking to potential witnesses and possibly relatives.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson has said: “We are providing consular support to the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain.”

According to The Times, Levi Davis had launched a profile on OnlyFans, a website often used by adult film performers to generate extra income from subscribers, shortly before his disappearance.

He had reportedly posted photographs entitled “My first nudes” on the site on 28 October.

His friend Richard Squire, whom he had been visiting in Ibiza before departing for Barcelona, said Mr Davis had joined OnlyFans as “it is something what he was doing on his own, inspired by other well-known people who have gone down the same route”.

The newspaper also reports that Mr Squire had served as art director on a fashion shoot in Ibiza in which Mr Davis had posed for a series of pictures wearing swimming trunks.

Mr Davis subsequently posted several of the shots on Instagram.

Mr Davis had also reportedly also released a single under the name Leda recently and, according to his mother, had considered dropping rugby altogether in order to concentrate on his music.

“He said that he still loves the game but wasn’t sure if he had a future in it,” she said.

“That’s big life decisions, everything was up in the air for him but I think he’d had enough of English rugby.”

After a complicated upbringing in which he was taken into foster care at seven, Mr Davis distinguished himself in the sport in his early teens, winning a rugby scholarship to Denstone College, an independent boarding school near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, at age 12 and going on to make his debut for Bath in 2017.

He then became to known a wider audience thanks to his appearances on ITV’s Celebrity X Factor in 2019 when he took part in an R&B group called Try Star alongside fellow rugby players Ben Foden and Thom Evans, both of whom have reached out to him this week.

The trio covered tracks by Blackstreet, Ginuwine and Lil Nas X among others and reached the semi-finals before being eliminated in favour of girl band V5.