Caroline Flack’s mum has accused police of failing her daughter’s case in a bombshell new documentary, claiming key mistakes and ignored warnings led to the tragic Love Island star’s suicide
Caroline Flack’s mum has exposed the police’s alleged failures in a new documentary about her daughter’s death. Christine Flack has been investigating her daughter’s death for the last five years and claims she has found mishandling in her legal case.
She said: “As a parent, we think our children are always going to be there, I want justice for my daughter.” The former Love Island host killed herself in February 2020 after learning that prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge.
‘Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth’ suggests that police failed and applied the wrong criteria in her case.
The TV star was arrested in December 2019 for allegedly assaulting boyfriend Lewis Burton and received a caution. Christine’s investigation shows that this was overturned after an appeal from the Metropolitan Police and she was instead charged with assault by beating.
This led her to lose her beloved ITV job. The documentary explores how Lewis had regretted getting the police involved and repeatedly wanted the case to be forgotten.
A domestic violence expert tells Christine in the documentary: “The police failed and applied the wrong criteria…they didn’t take notes.” Christine’s investigation found that “Jess”, who was the detective responsible for appealing Caroline’s case, had been busy dealing with a shooting on the night of the incident.
Nazir Afzal, the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West of England, reviewed the evidence for the documentary and offered his professional assessment. He noted that the incident involving Caroline and Lewis was an isolated event with no prior history of violence.
As he emphasised the fact that Lewis did not wish to press charges, the lawyer argued that pursuing a full prosecution was unwarranted. In his view, the case should have resulted in a caution rather than formal charges, as proceeding further “made no sense”.
The documentary also reveals Caroline’s heartbreaking final texts and voice notes. One text said: “I feel the lowest I’ve ever felt, I don’t see any way out of this.”
In a video taken after her arrest in December 2019, Flack said: “I’m doing this because I want to remember what I went through and what my family went through, what my boyfriend went through, what his family went through. It’s three days after I’ve been arrested for having a fight with my boyfriend. I’ve always co-operated with the police since they arrived. I was put in a cell.”
She said she was promised that “this wouldn’t be going further” and it “was a really private situation”. In the footage, she said she had lost “the job I’ve worked all my life on” and was living in a hotel and “receiving so much abuse”.
Flack, who is seen crying in the video, added: “It was a fight. I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, the only person I ever hurt is myself.”
Flack’s former agent Louisa Booth claimed a psychiatric report to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) saying she was not mentally fit enough to go through with the court case was dismissed. Christian Collerton, the series director, told the Daily Star: “There’s probably wider points to be made about lives under the lens, when you’re in the public eye and how the situation you can get caught up in gets reported.
“There’s this [certain perception] from the public that you sort of own celebrities who live their lives in the public eye.” He added: “The coverage that a celebrity would get, such as [the one] Caroline has faced, is obviously much much different to that you and I would face…
“There’s questions to be asked on whether we treat people fairly, regardless of if they’re famous or not famous, and I think this film kinda poses questions around whether that was the case with Caroline. The way tabloids reported on Caroline obviously played a huge part in how she was feeling…
“Your truth is being told for you and manipulated, away from what you remember happening. That’s not to say that tabloids exist in a vacuum…
“They write stories that the public wants to consume, so actually it says much more about who we are as a society.” The Metropolitan Police apologised to Ms Flack in 2023 for not recording the reason why her daughter was charged.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “The Independent Office for Police Conduct asked the Met to apologise to Caroline’s family for the absence of a recorded rationale in the CPS appeal process. “We have done so and acknowledged the impact this has had on them.”
A CPS spokesperson said: “All decisions in this case were made on the basis of the medical opinion available to us at the time. A person’s celebrity status never influences whether a case is taken forward.
“We are satisfied that the prosecution was correctly brought.” The documentary is available to stream on Disney+ from today (MON).
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