ROME—The British man found dead inside a lavish Italian hotel room after an apparent erotic game gone wrong has been named as a former professional rugby player.
Ex-rugby league player Ricky Bibey died Saturday at the four-star Hotel Continentale in Florence, Italy. The 40-year-old one-time prop forward, from Manchester, retired in 2012.
Police believe Bibey died after a night of “extreme sex and erotic games” went wrong. Authorities, who were called to the hotel early Saturday morning after guests reported screams from inside the couple’s room, discovered “some objects that would corroborate the hypothesis of a sexual game to the limit,” according to local newspaper La Nazione.
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Police were already at the hotel when Bibey was discovered after a 44-year-old woman, believed to be his girlfriend, pleaded with hotel staffers for help in the hotel corridor. Police intervened and called an ambulance and cordoned off the room with crime scene tape. She was rushed to hospital after losing “a lot of blood” and was reportedly covered in cuts and bruises. She underwent surgery on Sunday for internal bleeding, according to local press reports.
An official cause of death is yet to be revealed but police are said to believe Bibey died of a heart attack. An autopsy will be performed on Monday. Police say they will then weigh whether or not to press charges against the woman in connection to her lover’s death.
The couple had arrived at the $425 a night Hotel Continentale the day before Bibey’s death and were seen returning to the hotel at 3 a.m. the morning he died. They reportedly returned to the hotel in “high spirits.”
The Twitter account of Betfred Championship Club Leigh Centurions, which Bibey once played for, said the team was “deeply saddened” by the news.
