Text sent to missing X Factor star Levi Davis was read two months AFTER he vanished in Spain

A friend of missing X Factor star Levi Davis has revealed that a text message they sent to the rugby star was read two months after he vanished in Spain, sparking fresh hope that he could be found alive.

Former Bath rugby player Davis, 24, went missing on October 29 after leaving a friend in Ibiza to get the ferry to Barcelona alone.

His phone had apparently not been used since it was last detected near Barcelona’s train station on the night of October 29.

But now it has emerged that a message that a friend sent to Davis on December 15 – two months after he vanished – has been read.

The message, which was sent on December 15 at 13.25pm, reads: ‘Please come home. I love you. And miss you xx.’

But now it has emerged that a message that a friend sent to Levi on December 15 – two months after he vanished – has been read

Underneath the latest message, it has a ‘Read’ message, indicating that someone has seen the message.

Davis – who also appeared on X Factor: Celebrity – was last seen leaving an Irish pub in the centre of Barcelona on October 29 last year.  

His family fear the 24-year-old winger may have drowned in the sea close to the city’s port.

They have been frustrated by a reluctance from police in the Catalan city to trawl through CCTV and to send in divers to search the water by the ferry terminal, where his passport was recovered a week after his disappearance.

Davis’s’s relatives say they have been upset at speculation that he may have been kidnapped off the streets of Barcelona by a Somali gang over an unpaid £100,000 debt he ran up in London.

Davis has spoken about being blackmailed by criminals who threatened to kill him and his family in a chilling last video he initially deleted which re-emerged last week – three months after he vanished in Barcelona.

Gavin Burrows, whose Line of Inquiry firm is offering a £10,000 reward for information that could lead to Davis being found, says he is in receipt of an audio tape claiming a TV producer took compromising pictures of the rugby player-turned-reality star after he appeared on X Factor. 

There is no suggestion whatsoever he worked for or had anything to do with the popular show or another reality TV show Davis appeared on the following year.

Mr Burrows claimed in a tweet: ‘Following Levi Davis’s case being brought to light, we have received valuable alleged information from a number of former participants and other fellow contestants over a number of years in the X Factor programme who have confirmed the claims made in Davis’s video seem to be true.’

Mr Burrows said he had retrieved Davis’s Instagram video claiming he had been blackmailed, which he first posted four days before he vanished, and released it with the agreement of family and friends to help get information.

CCTV shows Davis leaving an Irish bar in Barcelona on October 29 

Davis travelled on a ferry from Ibiza to Barcelona from where he went missing 

The ex-Bath rugby player says at the start of the 15-minute footage: ‘Hello my name is Levi Davis and my life is in danger,’ before going on to allege he believed he was filmed performing various sexual acts after being drugged, which blackmailers have used to control and manipulate him.

He said: ‘I was told by them in ways which are not direct but are absolutely true that – if I said anything – they were going to attempt to kill me, threaten my family.

‘And they also were trying to frame me.’

Davis also alleges he gave police information about his manipulators, but that corrupt officers fed the information right back to them and refused to help him.

He said in the video clip that filming of him in ‘compromising positions’ while under the influence took place after he met an unnamed individual he began a relationship with and met regularly after completing his stint on X Factor in 2019.

At the time Davis, who made history by becoming the first rugby union player to come out as bisexual while still playing, is thought to have been competing on Celebs Go Dating as a straight man.

Mr Burrows said last month he is not convinced the blackmail Davis talked about was necessarily the cause of his disappearance, but it was something that needed to be properly investigated by police.

Although he and his team fear Davis may be dead and there has been a suggestion he could have drowned in Barcelona Port near to where his passport was found, he said today: ‘If he is alive we believe he could be in hiding, in an involuntary exile somewhere like a monastery, to protect himself from toxic individuals.’

Last month Mr Burrows said he believed an arrest was imminent, claiming a man who was a friend of Davis’s had been obstructing his investigation and urging police to haul him in for questioning.

Davis starred on Celebrity X Factor in 2019 alongside fellow rugby stars Ben Foden and Thom Evans in a singing group known as Try Star. He was also on E4’s Celebs Go Dating in 2020

After handing in a damning expose containing evidence of blackmail and threats allegedly over a Somali mafia debt, he said: ‘I believe Spanish police will have enough to make an arrest when they see what our own investigation has thrown up.

‘At the very least it should give them enough to haul someone in for questioning.

‘I’m not at liberty at the moment to go public with any names but there is one person in particular that I have grave suspicions about and believe can shed light on what has happened to Levi.

‘That person is someone who, while pretending to help, has in my view been nothing but an obstacle in trying to prevent our investigations from moving forward.’ 

Davis was taking a break in Europe after being sidelined from rugby following a knee injury.

He was picked up on CCTV leaving the Old Irish Pub near Barcelona’s La Rambla around 10pm on October 29, a few hours after taking a boat from Ibiza with just 40 euros (£35) and no change of clothes.

Friend Richard Squire, who formally reported him missing to cops in Barcelona after his family informed West Midlands police, described his decision to leave the island as ‘sudden’.

Last month, it emerged Davis’s Instagram had up to 38 contacts mysteriously deleted after he vanished.

Davis was a rugby union player for Bath between 2017 and 2020, when he joined Ealing Trailfinders. A year later he signed for Worthing Raiders.

The rugby player-turned-reality star performed on X Factor: Celebrity in 2019 with fellow rugby players Ben Foden and Thom Evans as part of the group Try Star. In 2020 he appeared on E4 dating series Celebs Go Virtual Dating.