Caroline Flack’s mum has claimed police made serious mistakes that contributed to the Love Island presenter’s death, saying key warnings were ignored and the case was mishandled from the start.
In a new interview with Cosmopolitan, Christine Flack said she’s spent the last five years investigating what really happened to her daughter — and believes the system failed her.
Credit: Canva
“As a parent, we think our children are always going to be there,” she said. “I want justice for my daughter.”
Caroline took her own life in February 2020 after learning prosecutors were pressing ahead with an assault charge — despite her boyfriend Lewis Burton repeatedly saying he didn’t want the case to go to court.
The TV presenter was arrested in December 2019 after an alleged argument with Lewis. She initially received a police caution, but Christine discovered that the Met Police appealed this and pushed for formal charges instead — a decision that ultimately cost Caroline her job and peace of mind.
A domestic violence expert who reviewed the case said police “failed and applied the wrong criteria” when handling it — even claiming officers didn’t properly take notes. Christine’s findings also revealed that the detective who filed the appeal had been busy dealing with a shooting on the night of the incident.
Credit: ITV
Former Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzal reviewed the evidence and agreed the prosecution never made sense. He said the incident was a one-off with no history of violence and that pressing ahead with charges when Lewis didn’t want to complain was “unwarranted”.
Caroline’s former agent Louisa Booth claimed that a psychiatric report sent to the CPS — stating Caroline wasn’t mentally fit to go through the trial — was ignored. Christine has also claimed that the case was treated differently due to Caroline’s well-known status.
In response to Christine’s claims, 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.”
The CPS also defended its actions, saying: “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.”
For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.
Featured image credit: Beretta/Sims/Shutterstock
