Friend of disgraced former Brazil and Man City star Robinho, who was implicated in his 2017 rape conviction, discovered lifeless after ‘plunging from eleventh flooring of Santos condominium block’

A friend of fallen football star Robinho implicated in the footballer’s rape case has been found dead in Brazil.

Rudney Gomes’ body was discovered on Tuesday night in the port city of Santos in the state of Sao Paulo and police say they are treating his death as a suicide.

Former Real Madrid and Manchester City star Robinho, who named 46-year-old Gomes as one of the men who had sex with the woman he was eventually convicted of sexually assaulting alongside another pal, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence in Brazil handed down to him by an Italian court.

The ex-Brazil international continues to protest his innocence and claims the Albanian he was found guilty of forcing himself on had engaged in a consensual orgy after getting drunk on vodka at a club in Milan.

Gomes, accused but never tried over his alleged involvement like three other men named by Robinho, left Italy before he could be summoned to court.

The only other man convicted, another friend of the footballer’s called Ricardo Falco, is also serving a nine-year prison sentence in Brazil.

Rudney Gomes’ (left) body was discovered on Tuesday night in the port city of Santos

Robinho continues to protest his innocence and claims the Albanian he was found guilty of forcing himself on had engaged in a consensual orgy

Gomes, one of Robinho’s former bodyguards, reportedly plunged from the 11th floor of an apartment block in Santos.

Emergency responders including police and paramedics rushed to the scene after the alarm was raised but there was nothing anyone could do to save him. It was not immediately clear on Thursday if the rape case had anything to do with his apparent decision to end his own life.

The crime Robinho was convicted over occurred after the footballer met up with friends to celebrate Gomes’ 34th birthday at the Sio Cafe where the rape took place.

Gomes had largely remained out of the public eye since the trial’s conclusion.

Robinho implicated Gomes after being summoned to make a formal statement about his role in what happened that night.

In phone conversations obtained by investigators the footballer was heard bragging to another friend how difficult it would be for the Albanian woman to successfully press charges if she hadn’t fallen pregnant and there were no cameras recording the night’s events.

Robinho’s and Falco’s failed appeals in Italian courts lasted years and they both returned to Brazil while they awaited the final decision after being bailed.

The disgraced former football star has been behind bars in Tremembe Prison near Sao Paulo since March 21 last year after Brazil’s High Court of Justice ended up accepting Italy’s request to make him serve his jail sentence in his homeland.

Nine of the court’s 15 ministers voted in favour to incarcerate him in his home country of Brazil

The disgraced former football star has been behind bars in Tremembe Prison near Sao Paulo since March 21

He has fought to try to get out of the prison he is in early on a technicality and is currently appealing a court decision last November rejecting his requests for freedom.

Robinho swapped a luxury seafront home in Santos for 10 days of full isolation after his transfer to jail before being moved to a shared tiny eight square metre cell with another inmate.

Although his current accommodation is far removed from the mansion he used to call home, the jail he is being held in is known in Brazil as ‘The Prison for Famous People’ and offers inmates better conditions than at other lock-ups in the state of Sao Paulo.

Reports after he was incarcerated said Robinho had started a computer course in prison and was also participating in reading groups with other inmates.

Brazil’s High Court of Justice jailed Ricardo Falco in June last year in a repeat of its acceptance of Italy’s request he should be made to do his prison time in his homeland like Robinho.