The mother of former rugby player and Celebrity X Factor star Levi Davis has urged police to do more to find him — two years after his disappearance.
Julie Davis said investigators “pulled out the stops” searching for Jay Slater and Madeleine McCann and should to do the same for her missing son.
The former Bath player, 26, was last seen at The Old Irish Pub in Barcelona two years ago, on October 29 2022. The official investigation into his disappearance by the city’s police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, became inactive in October the following year.
Ms Davis said she wants new evidence reviewed as part of an in-depth investigation.
“We have felt abandoned by the police and I believe Levi was a victim of crime in the UK and in Spain,” she said. “So many things do not add up.
“I’m determined to fight for the truth. Until his body is found, I will not give up hope.”
However, UK police said Spanish officers were running the investigation and they would help "if there are any further developments".
Ms Davis said the second anniversary of his disappearance was "bringing back the emotional anxiety and sleepless nights".
Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips echoed calls for a “joined-up” police review of new evidence after a 14-month Byline Times investigation which found “serious failings” in the Spanish probe into Davis’s disappearance.
Ms Phillips, who represents Birmingham Yardley, is Ms Davis’s MP. Speaking in July, before she was made Minister for Safeguarding — with a remit including sexual violence, gangmasters and prostitution — she told Byline Times: “It’s clear that some lines of inquiry connected to the disappearance of Mr Davis have yet to be properly explored.
“All avenues and enquiries should be exhausted both in the United Kingdom and Catalonia. Too many questions remain for the family and friends of Mr Davis, and I would urge the police in both jurisdictions to work together to act on any new information.”
The alleged failings include flaws in a police report that concluded Davis probably drowned at sea under strange circumstances. Byline Times also alleged an “unexplained failure” to recover CCTV footage of Davis.
Four days before Davis went missing, he posted a video to Instagram claiming his life was in danger because he had revealed an alleged plot to blackmail him. He said pictures had been taken of him being drugged and raped.
So who is Levi Davis, what were the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and what is the alleged new evidence that has come to light?
Who is Levi Davis?
Davis was a winger for English rugby clubs Bath and Ealing Trailfinders between 2017 and 2020. He also played rugby for Worthing while pursuing a music career when he disappeared.
After appearing on The X Factor: Celebrity in 2019 alongside fellow former rugby players Ben Foden and Thom Evans, he signed a record deal. He released his debut single, With Me, under the name LEDA, on September 14, 2022. His second single was due to be released in November 2022.
Davis also appeared on E4’s Celebs Go Dating in 2020.
Before disappearing in 2022, he stayed with his friend Richard Squire in Ibiza to work on songs. He arrived on the island on October 17, 2022, and travelled to Barcelona by boat on October 29.
When was Levi Davis last seen?
Squire said he dropped Davis in Ibiza town the previous day because he’d arranged to meet someone for dinner. That was the last time he saw him. The next morning, he messaged Davis to check he was okay and Davis told him he’d left the island.
“I was obviously worried for him. I said: ‘Gone where?’ He said: ‘Barcelona, going to see some mates’,” he told the BBC in February 2023.
“So then I sent him a voice note saying: ‘You’re worrying me. Please tell me where you are’.”
Davis said he would call when he arrived in Barcelona but never did.
After several days, Squire contacted Davis’s family and other mutual friends and the police launched an investigation on November 8.
CCTV footage of Davis leaving the Old Irish Pub in the city centre was one of his last sightings, a few hours after he arrived.
The BBC obtained his final WhatsApp voice note, in which he described Barcelona as “absolutely beautiful”.
“It’s amazing. I’m literally just getting all my inspo. I love it. It’s so good,” he said in his last known contact with friends.
Also in February 2023, a video re-emerged of Davis claiming he was being blackmailed by criminals who threatened to kill him and his family over an alleged £100,000 debt.
He initially deleted the footage after posting it on Instagram.
Davis’s family said in December 2022 that private investigator Gavin Burrows had volunteered to help find him.
Mr Burrows’s firm said it would pay £10,000 for information leading to Levi being found.
What is the alleged new evidence?
Byline Times’s Dan Evans said on October 28, 2024: “We’ve looked into every aspect of Levi’s case and we can prove he was groomed online under false pretences. We’ve also found four witnesses who connect the same individual to the blackmail claims and two others who say OnlyFans was one intended conduit for Levi to earn money for what he said was a sex-trafficking outfit.”
He added the publication has “made major new discoveries around the police’s preferred theory that Levi drowned, including establishing that unidentified parties had to be involved if indeed it was him seen shouting for help in a busy shipping lane a mile out to sea”.
Fellow reporter Tom Latchem added: “We now think there are clear grounds for a joined-up review involving police in both countries, starting with the rape and blackmail allegations.”
Byline Times said a Mossos d’Esquadra representative declined to comment and asked for questions to be put to the judge who oversaw the probe.
It added that a court representative declined to comment, saying the case was closed.
