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Updated with links to the four preceding parts, two of which were previously exclusive to print.
New evidence in the cold case of missing rugby and X Factor: Celebrity star Levi Davis suggests he was groomed for a nude “casting” by a leading television industry figure he later alleged was part of a plot to sexually blackmail him, a special Byline Times investigation can reveal.
Levi identified the individual – a heavyweight in the world of programme-making – to four separate sources before disappearing in Barcelona four days after claiming on Instagram that an anonymous ‘sextortion’ group was threatening his life.
In the 15-minute social media post the former Bath rugby winger told of being targeted by people he met after his 2019 appearance on X Factor: Celebrity who he alleged later drugged, raped, filmed, and then coercively controlled him for more than two years.
The 24 October 2022 post – which Levi sent separately to friends for safekeeping – was deleted after a day. In it, he told his 19,000 Instagram followers of “videos, in which they could get money from me, on the black market, on the black web.”
“I understand that I am not the only one this is happening to and this has happened to,” said Levi, adding: “They have threatened my little sister and brothers so I cannot stand back here. And I won’t.”
Now, this newspaper has uncovered evidence of an elaborate attempt by a man – who Levi said later blackmailed him – to trick him into sharing potentially compromising digital material.
The fresh evidence comes as a Labour Minister and former Metropolitan Police Chief both demand a review of the investigation into his disappearance.
Grooming Levi – The New Evidence
It’s June 2020. The news is filled with plans for lockdown easing as Britain dares to hope again after a spring of Covid house arrest.
Levi is excited. In a few weeks he’ll be escaping his flat in Bath city centre to film his first reality show since X Factor – Celebs Go Virtual Dating – for E4. And now his WhatsApp is pinging with an encouraging new offer of work.
It’s a message from a very senior figure in the British television industry. They’ve never met before but the man’s CV speaks for itself. He is a well-known industry figure – a creator of iconic TV for some of the biggest stars. He seems legit.
He is also – apparently – casting a pilot for a big new show for a major British broadcaster with an A-list lead star. It’s not clear how, but the executive already seems to know about Levi. He thinks he has the “perfect look” for a minor but significant appearance.
It’s a sex scene – “quite racy”, says the man, adding that Levi would need to wear boxer shorts that “show a bulge”. “U don’t see much – all filmed arty,” he reassures, and Levi replies: “Yes that sounds good as it’s tasteful.”
Levi would, apparently, be needing to audition – “I can send treatment and script,” the executive promises – initially in a “read” over Zoom.
Levi, still just 22 and brand new to showbusiness, is eager. He gives details for his agent and lawyer to “sort all the fine print”.
“Yes, I’d be very up for this,” he said. “What do you need from me?”
The conversation that followed over the next hours and days was significant enough for Levi to capture it in 30 screenshots and send them to his management team. They are uncomfortable to read.
Camouflaged within this “casting couch” pretext, a sophisticated and targeted grooming attempt unfolds the objective of which seems to be to obtain intimate digital images of Levi, while setting up future in-person meetings away from ‘work’.
It is also the first encounter between Levi and a man, he later told three sources and his mother, was involved in a plot to sextort him.
“Hey Man… Need Lads who are Fresh and New”
It’s not clear who gave the man Levi’s number. But from the tone of their WhatsApp introduction contact seems to be expected.
“Hey man XXXX here,” opens the TV executive, who Byline Times is not naming today for legal reasons but whose identity is known to the police. “Good to meet man… need some good looking lads who are fresh and new. Can I ask a couple of questions?”
“Hi XXXX,” replies Levi. “Yes it sounds interesting and for sure.”
“Would u just play straight[,] or gay as well,” the man asks, directly. “Totally fine whatever.”
“I personally wouldn’t play gay,” Levi tells the TV figure in the June conversation, adding: “But have nothing against it and actively support lgbt and I haven’t done love scenes but yes I would.”
“The part I am thinking[,] he is known for his asset,” presses the man. “So [are] you happy to be in boxers with let’s say a view of it haha. Sorry to be rude hahab (sic).
“The main actor [is the] only one who has scene with his out! I can send treatment and script and would need u to do a read on zoom which we can arrange.
“V famous actor playing lead who has to play gay.. he has a scene with it out [Names another actor] style haha. And he’s a huge actor if u know what I mean…”
This reference to the male headliner establishes a theme that runs throughout the exchange. Peppered among the sort of questions someone casting a TV show might plausibly ask – “can you act?” – he refers to the male sexual appendage 68 times, including increasingly personal requests for specific details of Levi’s.
Levi tries throughout to maintain professional distance. “So your (sic) just trying to ascertain what I will and will not do on screen to basically see what role fits me best,” asks Levi.
“As you have me done [down] for a sex scene and a boxers scene aha assuming the scripts (sic) being written now. How many parts?”
“It’s one episode at the mo,” the man responds. “And then they decide whether to make the series. And yeah just wanting to put lay of land and know what everyone up for.”
“The gays Can Make Ya Money”
Having established Levi’s relationship status as single – “You married mate? Will she not mind [a sex scene]” – the man focuses his interest on Levi’s intimate physical dimensions, ostensibly because of the relevance to the specific role.
“I’m confident with what’s down there,” the rugby player says, adding later: “If you think this could break me [into showbusiness] then if I wasn’t keen as hell I’m keen as hell now.”
With Levi seemingly on board with his pretext the executive starts making a series of unsolicited sexual references and overt references to his genitalia with a strongly heterosexual context. The man goes on to suggest he and Levi should meet for beers off-set, where they can be “unprofessional”. “U need to give me advice on how to make the girls (sic),” he writes.
“I’m no pro,” Levi replies. “Just feel being a good bloke is part of it for sure so I try my best to be the best version of myself with everyone I ever meet.”
“Haha mate you sound like a top guy,” says the man. “Sorry for being in depth… personally always good to meet another lad who does well down there [reference to the male organ]. Us big lads got to stick together.”
“Honestly, I get it,” Levi types back. “It’s a role and so you need to know… I get it.”
This phase of the conversation is significant because the man is lying in order to get from Levi what he clearly wants – nudes. In reality, Byline Times has learnt, the man is openly gay – a fact well known to his family and in his private and professional lives.
Levi however had only three months earlier told his closest friends and Bath Rugby teammates about his bisexuality. Despite the complete support from his teammates, it had also been – for a while – “the wider talk of” the historic 159-year old club.
The man moves the conversation on slightly, remarking about the lead ‘star’ who, he claimed – ‘in real life’ – is “shagging the girl u would do the love scene with”.
“I mean this is v unprofessional but if u wanted to see her,” he adds. “Happy to show between us… I mean she is worth seeing.”
No picture is sent. Levi remains business-like. The man persists with his requests for personal information. At one point, when Levi decines to reveal the exact size of his endowment, the man tells him: “the gays will love ya too… the gays can make ya money.”
“I’m just not a bragger that’s all,” Levi said. “I’m comfortable talking about it if it’s for the role, but the sex scene is covered down there isn’t it and so other than the boxers [underwear] you won’t see it? Again I don’t really care[,] just confirming what you’ve said is all.”
“Hahaha that’s cool man,” the executive responds, “just joking”.
He sends Levi the first of two inappropriate personal pictures of himself. “That’s me,” he writes. “How [do] you compare to that! Mate we could have so much fun,” he added, before making a further inappropriate ‘hetero’ comment about a woman.
Attempting to steer the conversation to safer waters, Levi types back: “Aha sorry I’m professional till I get casted (sic) so can’t talk about any of this.” The man replies: “Ok mate. Haha shame.”
Elsewhere, the man keeps pressing. Would Levi like to see a full-frontal image of another celebrity as it’s “just easy way to see how u compare”? Again Levi declines politely, writing back: “it’s all ok I don’t need to see.”
“If you can send details [of the role] to my agent and we can go from there if that’s ok,” Levi repeats. “And I joke around but I am professional especially with that stuff, as it’s such a grey area.”
Grey Area
What is clear from the messages is that Levi is careful to come across as a credible performer. Admitting to being a “keen bean” for the role, he mentions the audition and refers the man to his agent no fewer than 13 times.
At one point Levi says: “I’m buzzing to see the script and see the depth of my character also, I love assuming the role so I’d do that before the zoom for sure.”
On another occasion, he adds: “Great chatting to you, I look forward to hearing more on the role through my agent and getting down to it… Just as an FYI I’m very flexible in the roles I can play, so anything your (sic) envisioning will be good with me.”
A week later Levi’s agent still had yet to receive any email. “Sorry, still a delay…and I am filming next week,” the man explains when Levi chases him, adding: “We of course won’t be filming until much later in the year.”
When a further week passes and there is still no contact, Levi shares screenshots of the approach to his manager, including a further unsolicited graphic image.
“I’m not going to message with him anymore,” writes Levi. His agent agrees. “I just think he is a pervert and leading you on,” they say.
However, Byline Times has established that – according to multiple sources Levi turned to in crisis – contact did in fact continue.
Sources confirm that it was within weeks – shortly after Levi filmed Celebs Go (Virtual) Dating in July 2020 – that he started having problems, although there is no suggestion that anyone connected to the show or its production company Lime Pictures was involved.
“This [TV executive] had photos of him at a sex party. It was when he was on Celebs Go Dating, [while he was still presenting] as a straight guy.”
During the production, Levi was staying in the Arlington House Apartments, a serviced facility near Green Park, London. During evenings off filming he and friends from the show were partying and drinking regularly “at various venues”, according to a well-placed source.
On one occasion on 14 July 2020 the excesses of the night before meant Levi woke up late for his production call time. “Everyone was relieved to be out of lockdown at the time. We were all overdoing it a bit,” said the source. “Levi was in a good moment. He was recording the show and getting his new flat sorted out in West Ealing as he’d just moved permanently to play for Ealing Trailfinders.”
Deep Secret
In the months before he vanished Levi confided to his nearest and dearest that he had “a deep secret”. He told them he was in trouble and claimed that the TV executive was one of the people involved.
One of the confidantes told Byline Times: “Levi said [a person he identified by their job] and people in the entertainment industry were blackmailing him. He said he had gone to a party and had been given drugs there.
“He told me he had been to a few of these parties but that on this occasion he had been incapacitated and they had made videos of him. He was scared and he said he needed to get out of the UK.”
The primary witness tell of Levi describing having to meet and greet men attending private sex events. “They gave him stuff to hand out to people. He said they had videos of him and that he was being blackmailed. That it was [people] in the [entertainment] industry.”
A second new source said Levi told him, “basically there was a [TV executive] that he became friends with. As they all do when you’re young, they promise you the world, and he said he took pictures of him [Levi] having sex at a… party [in 2020]. The blackmail he was referring to in the video was the pictures [from then].”
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A third source – university friend Mike Guida – also confirmed that Levi told him shortly before disappearing he was being blackmailed by a leading TV figure, and that during the course of the conversation he indirectly mentioned the man’s name.
“He was crying in my arms,” Guida said. “He told me ‘I messed up. Someone is blackmailing me’. He said the person worked for major TV networks, but was adamant that he couldn’t say who, but he did mention his first name.”
Finally, Levi told his mum Julie and because it happened in London, she urged him to contact the Metropolitan Police.
“Getting information from Levi about this was difficult but when he went to the police he told me it involved someone important from TV,” she said.
“He called the West Mids police. He was living in Solihull at the time. Then it moved to the Met.
“I was there when he made the calls. It was only then I heard he was worrying about me. [He said] ‘I fear for your safety, the family’s safety, my safety’.
“It was like a story broken down into several parts over several months. That’s how we got that information. So, you can imagine it was confusing for us.
“As I remember it, Levi was disclosing stuff [but] it was quite disjointed. I said ‘Levi if you feel that your life is in danger you need to tell the police’.
“He was hesitant to do that. He suspected that because this guy had influence, he suspected the police. It was not like Levi. He was [usually] trusting of the police.
“I said what choice have you got?
“Eventually, he made the call. He told me and he told [his brothers] Nathan and Luke. He didn’t go into much detail.
“The main reason was that he was drugged. He said his memory of the moment was sketchy. He had various glimpses of the attack appearing as flashbacks.
“He was adding up the picture to say he was definitely drug raped. He said he didn’t feel right physically.”
Questions and Denials
In July, this newspaper approached the man at his home. He did not deny messaging Levi on WhatsApp, offering him a break in a premium television show under false pretences, or trying to obtain his private information by deception.
But he did deny meeting Levi “on subsequent occasions”, being involved in any acts of coercion towards him, or having any connection to or knowledge about his disappearance.
He also denied controlling digital files of Levi, any knowledge or involvement in any alleged drugging or rape, or being connected to any alleged network of abusers.
Byline Times’ dossier of evidence is available to the police.