‘My Name Is Levi Davis and My Life Is in Danger’ – Reopening the Case of the Rugby Star Who Disappeared

A version of this article was first published in the July 2024 edition of Byline Times

It’s a missing person’s case with dark criminal undertones, conspicuously unsolved two years after the rugby union professional and reality television contestant Levi Davis stepped off a ferry in Barcelona and vanished.

Twelve months later, police probes in the Catalan capital were being shelved without conclusion. Inquiries in the UK had already hit a brick wall; inert for lack of evidence as to the fate of the former Bath Rugby and X Factor: Celebrity star. 

The second anniversary of Levi’s disappearance passed on 29 October with no appeals for fresh information from the investigating force in Spain, the Mossos d’Esquadra. “We have nothing new,” it admitted when asked. To all intents and purposes, Levi’s case is cold.

For his family and many friends, hopes of a miracle breakthrough have faded. Reluctantly, many are accepting Levi will never “just walk back through the door”.

The loss has left an open wound, grief denied, and many many questions.

The circumstances surrounding Levi’s disappearance are as perplexing as they are disturbing. Four days before he vanished on 29 October 2022, he waived his rights to anonymity and recorded a 15-minute Instagram post in which he said he was a victim of drug rape, death threats, and a long campaign of blackmail.

“My name is Levi Davis,” the then 24-year-old told his 19,000 or so followers. “And my life is in danger.”

A day after that, he deleted the video from public view, though – presciently, it turned out – shared it for safekeeping with old university friends. For, three days later, he was gone, apparently without a trace.

The Levi grimly addressing the camera through a black and white filter, making claims of sexual abuse, coercion, corruption, organised crime, and the UK entertainment industry, was unrecognisable from the talented and trusting young extravert his friends knew and loved.

Here instead was a man brought low, speaking of things more familiar to a P-Diddy indictment, or the plot of the Netflix show Baby Reindeer, and as far removed as could possibly be from the flying rugby winger whose talents and lust for life propelled him from a childhood in care to the brink of stardom.

“Whatever happened to Levi hit him hard,” his birth mother Julie Davis told Byline Times. “He had his future in his own hands. And I think someone, some people, went out of their way to hurt him and control him. It’s heartbreaking. I can accept that Levi might well be gone forever. But I can’t accept that someone targeted my son and escaped any consequences.”

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Things Do Not Add Up

When Levi first disappeared there was an initial flurry of media interest fuelled in part by the public speculations of a private investigator who’d volunteered to solve the mystery. Febrile headlines about alleged £100,000 drug debts unpaid and supposedly imminent arrests of shadowy third parties muddied the water early. But as each line of inquiry came to nothing, so public attention dwindled.

Then in October 2023, the Mossos d’Esquadra conceded defeat in a case it had described as “disturbing” and lacking “logical explanation”. According to its own official report, it concluded that the absence of Levi’s body meant there was “no sign of criminality”. The matter was going into cold storage indefinitely pending new evidence.

In London, in January 2022, nine months before Levi vanished, detectives opened – and a week later closed – a report he made of a drug rape at a flat in the Ealing area of the city, in which he said he was filmed and then blackmailed.

“An investigation was carried out and detectives spoke to the victim,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Byline Times, adding: “The investigation could not be progressed further and was closed on 29 January 2022.”

“Everything just stopped,” Julie said. “I get it that people go missing all the time, that bad things happen to good people, and that the police have to focus resources. But I wanted a second opinion. Too many things do not add up.”

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‘I Ask, No I Beg… Try to Understand’

Levi’s 15-minute Instagram post is difficult to watch. “I ask, no I beg, that you share that you listen and try to understand what I am telling you,” he implores. Byline Times has spent 17 months trying to do so.

We began exploring Levi’s case in August 2023, while investigating the phenomenon of catfishing and online sexploitation. We tracked Julie down to an estate of smart executive homes in the West Midlands. She wasn’t easy to find, for good reason.

At Levi’s insistence, his mum was taking care to protect her location, having not long moved house with his two younger siblings. “He was desperate for us all to move,” Julie told us. “He said people were threatening to harm us in order to get to him. He was scared for our safety.”

In the course of our investigation, this newspaper has spoken to more than 40 separate sources. Many are happy to be quoted openly while others have asked not to be named for reasons including similar personal security concerns.

We have spoken to Levi’s closest friends, former teammates, professional advisors, eye-witnesses, private investigators, other journalists, and – most disturbingly – people within an entertainment industry that exposed him to what appears to be unconscionable sexual and psychological abuse, to build the most definitive picture yet of his life and loss.

And we have established a timeline that tracks Levi from the roar of the rugby stadium to the shiny floors of reality TV, where predators eye starlets “like candy”, to the streets of London and Birmingham, the Balearic party island of Ibiza, and (it seems likely) the treacherous open seas around the port of Spain’s famous old city.

We found a story of three lives: of an infant born into a troubled upbringing; a youth lifted from uncertain prospects by rare sporting and musical talents; and a man whose quest for acceptance and identity left him wide open to base human exploitation in the digital age.

This is the story of Levi Davis.

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Moonshot

It is October 2019 and 21-year-old Levi is entering a new world. A casting agent for X Factor: Celebrity has heard of a precocious rugby talent with a strong voice, natural stage confidence, and compelling backstory.

‘The X Factor’: pop mogul Simon Cowell’s gladiatorial reality talent show franchise and an annual UK tabloid obsession in which – for 15 lucrative seasons – contestants sang for judges’ approval, viewer votes, and a moonshot at stardom.

For the very few, there was a record contract and manufactured music career at the end of the rainbow. For the rest, it was an entree to the fame game – a popularity contest with more snakes than ladders in which the naive seldom last long.

Cowell’s producers loved Levi, the kid who came through foster care to win a full boarding scholarship to the £35,000-a-year Denstone College, study Sports Performance at Bath University, play for the England under-18s and 19s, and win a contract with Bath Rugby itself.

They teamed him up with former England fullback Ben Foden and Scotland winger Thom Evans in a trio called Try Star. “Levi’s vocals carried the band,” said one management source. “[The others] were better known in the world of rugby, but he was the greater musical talent – Try Star needed him.”

“He was really excited,” the management source added. “He went to LA to film at the X Factor judges’ houses and had an amazing time. They stayed in a great hotel. They got looked after. The camera crews were following them – Levi loved that side of it. It was all new to him. It appealed to his ego. I’d say he got carried away slightly in the buzz. But he was 21, so that was quite normal.”

Yet even at this early stage, it wasn’t all smiles amid the glamour. “Levi was the youngest and least famous of the three,” added a family source. “He felt overwhelmed sometimes. He phoned home from America in tears about it. He was homesick and miserable. But he pushed through and got on with the job.”

Levi helped Try Star to fifth place in the series. Appearing on prime-time Saturday night television was a huge boost to his fledgling music career. But it also, seemingly, left him vulnerable – both to predators inhabiting the peripheries of the entertainment industry and aspects of his own nature.

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Organised Crime

“It’s important that you know I am a personable guy,” Levi later told his Instagram followers. “I didn’t use (sic) to have a guard up. But for reasons I am about to tell you I have not been myself for a very long time.”

“I do not blame this on anybody as we are all an aggregate of our own decisions,” he went on, before telling of being drug-raped, sexually extorted and hounded systematically to the point of mental breakdown.

Levi’s sincerity is palpable. But the acceptance of personal responsibility – typical of a character forged in the close-knit collectives of professional team sport – seems misplaced given he was left fearing for his life.

“By doing this I am not safe,” Levi said. “I try not to put individuals’ names in this. And I try to be as vague as possible through fear of retaliation. However, I understand that I am not the only one this is happening to. And this has happened to.”

It’s hard to fathom the scale of Levi’s words, so monstrous are the things he describes. The allegations may resonate with anyone following the ongoing trial of the former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, who has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges. Or the life-imprisonment of ‘catfish killer’ Alexander McCartney the man from Newry, Northern Ireland, who groomed, sexually abused, and blackmailed around 3,000 children, sharing their images with other offenders across the world.

As Levi put it: “With organised crime, it is not one person, it is an aggregate of people. People that you do not know. People that get into your lives through whatever means possible.”

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Against the Odds

University friend Ben Kaiser recalled strong reservations in Levi’s friendship group about his suitability for celebrity life. “There was a view that going on that TV show was the worst thing ever for Levi – being exposed to the music industry, which is renowned for exploitation,” Mr Kaiser told Byline Times.

“I don’t think he recognised when people were taking advantage – he just wanted to please people. He wouldn’t say ‘no’. The worst environment was to go on X Factor. But he wanted us to be proud of him.”

In his Instagram post, Levi is clear that his troubles began after appearing on the Simon Cowell show. Byline Times has spoken extensively to sources including former contestants and staff on the 2019 edition of X Factor: Celebrity and found no evidence of wrongdoing by anyone connected with the production.

“X Factor was a generally positive experience,” said Julie. “Although he didn’t like how controlling it was – he wasn’t allowed to use his own doctor for example – it was a big opportunity.

“And there were all sorts of people buzzing around promising him things around the edges of the show. He talked about one music producer who was going to develop and promote his career even if he didn’t win. Levi was ambitious. He was also young and trusting. I think that was dangerous for him.”

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A Cooler Crowd

It was self-evident to those guiding Levi’s career that he would struggle to maintain professional sport and professional music at the same time.

“Levi was always meant to go straight back to rugby,” said one former advisor. “That was the deal. But his head was turned. Music and TV brought a cooler crowd than rugby. And having had a taste of fame Levi was impatient for more. There was a lot of partying and schmoozing. Levi wanted to fit in. He was a young guy having fun. That’s where he started using drugs.”

The advisor added: “He was very talented but could also be quite erratic and hard to manage. That’s why rugby, with its structure, was so important for him. But it’s impossible to mix a music career and be a professional athlete. Something was going to give.”

Those who know Levi well clearly hold him in the highest esteem. They paint pictures of a likeable, principled, loyal, kind and highly driven character who grew up “very much on the outside; always trying to fit in with new places and people,” according to one friend.

In an interview broadcast in 2020, Levi talked about his childhood trauma, revealing he’d been “in and around bad things at a very young age”. “I bounced around a few foster homes,” he said. “I was an upset, angry kid for a long time, and then I found my foster parents and they were amazing, and they facilitated me to do all the things I’ve done.”

“Levi really wanted to be loved,” said another close source. “His upbringing was disjointed. He hardly ever talked about his dad except to say he hadn’t seen him since he was 18 months old and had no desire to.

“Then there were problems when Levi was young. His mum was unwell in hospital for a spell and he was being looked after by her ex-partner. Levi and his two elder brothers were taken into care when he was five. There were 10 years between them and they lived apart. It all had a big impact. Everything Levi achieved, he did against the odds.”

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Born Fighting

Levi Davis was born fighting. Delivered by Caesarean section seven weeks premature on 12 March 1998 at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, he weighed just 3lbs 15oz.

“He was in an incubator for about a week or so,” recalled older brother Nathan, a bricklayer by trade. “I remember picking him up in the palm of one hand. He was tiny.

“Once he started doing sports, that was when he started to grow. They gave him a special diet. He always used to run and was really fast, even though he was small. We’re a sporty family.”

Levi’s athletic abilities came from his mother’s side – Julie has a talent for competitive badminton, while one younger sibling is a promising ice skater.

He was placed with a series of families who couldn’t meet his needs before settling with Suzanne Balfour, who gave him much-needed stability. It was during this settled period, while a pupil at Fradley Park primary school in Staffordshire, that his knack for sport became obvious.

“Levi was football mad at this point in his life,” said a family source. “But he also wanted to get involved with cricket. He struggled with his attention span, so he played wicketkeeper. And then in the winter, he started playing rugby. With his speed and power, he was a natural fit.”

Although foster care had its challenges for Levi, it also came with opportunities. Developing his game at secondary school, the Friary in Lichfield, Levi went on – with encouragement from a headmaster invested in helping underprivileged pupils – to win a sports scholarship to Denstone College in Uttoxeter.

Levi’s world opened up there. “He was popular and had so many friends – friends for life,” said a source close to the family. 

Another said: “Boarding school was really good for Levi. It gave him an amazing springboard into adult life. But culturally it was also almost entirely white. There was one other black kid. So it was also a case of always trying to fit in.”

While studying at the historic 156-year-old institution, he was also playing for his local club, Burton, which put him through to the Leicester Tigers academy.

“He was 15 or 16 when his talent started to look like it could become a career,” the family source added. “It was a fateful journey.”

Denstone College helped win Levi his move to Bath for university. He signed with the Bath Rugby Academy and trained and played as he studied. 

He had his first game for the club in 2017 and went on to represent England at under-18 and under-19 level. In 2019, he made his first appearance in Premiership rugby, going on to play eight times for the first team.

At uni’, Levi cemented a strong friendship group. “He has an aura around him and a heart of gold,” said Ben Kaiser. “He’s one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.”

With rugby he found camaraderie. “They were his family to an extent,” said Dick Best, the former England Rugby Union coach whose agency Inside Rugby Ltd formerly represented Levi.

“Levi was a powerful athlete and an infectious character,” Mr Best told Byline Times. “He went to a good rugby school on a scholarship and was very well coached. With the right help, he had the potential to be a regular Premiership player. But he needed direction. Levi could be cherubic, but was also easily led.”

University life and an academy wage gave Levi the freedom to start exploring himself as a person properly for the first time. There were, by all accounts, high jinks aplenty. “This is rugby”, said a former teammate, “there’s always another pub to go to, another drinking game to play”.

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“I’m Bisexual.. [but You’re] Not on My Radar”

While rugby was Levi’s ticket to the top, it wasn’t what truly made him tick.

“He was phenomenal at rugby and liked it, but his real passion was singing,” said Ben Kaiser. “He would sing to us all the time; he’d never shut up. He was so good. He loved blues and country. We all knew he wanted to sing professionally.”

When X Factor: Celebrity came knocking, Bath Rugby gave Levi its blessing to appear. Indeed, such was the bond with his Bath teammates that five months after appearing on the ITV1 show he felt comfortable enough to open up to them about his sexuality.

“Hi guys,” he wrote in the team WhatsApp group on 19 May 2020. “I just want to tell you something that’s been eating away at me for four years now. I want to be open and honest with you boys, as friends and teammates. I’m bisexual. It’s something I have known since I was 18.”

Levi signed off with a characteristically light touch: “None of you lot are on my radar,” he joked. “So it’s okay.”

Levi’s mentor at Bath Anthony Watson, the current Leicester, England and British and Irish Lions player – a World Cup 2019 finalist and three-time Six Nations winner – remembers the moment.

“The reaction in the group was total support,” he told Byline Times. “Everyone in the team was completely fine when he came out. It was never an issue.

“That group was full of great guys, it was the safest team he could have done it in. Levi texted me after to say ‘The lads have been class, I hope I can just crack on’.”

But it was a sliding doors moment. ‘Out’ for the first time and exploring his new post-X Factor world, Levi had no idea he was on the radar of others; people intent on doing him harm.

“He was always a very well-balanced person; he was happy with where he was, and doing well,” said Julie Davis. “It was strange that all of a sudden things just went upside down. Obviously something has been going on. What that something is, still needs to be investigated.”