It’s been five years since one of the UK’s shining stars in television took her own life, butCaroline Flack’s mum wants the world to know what the police and media got wrong.
After being charged with assaulting her partner, the formerLove Islandpresenter’sdeath at the age of 40sent shockwaves through the nation.
Towards the end of last year it was revealed that her mum,Christine Flack, was working withDisney+ to release a documentary looking at thefinal 24 hours of the TV presenter’s life.
Now, ahead of its release on November 10, Christine has shared her hopes for the project to ‘set the record straight’ on her daughter’s life.
Speaking to theGuardian, the 71-year-old said: ‘I’d been trying for four years to understand what happened and I still had so many questions.
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‘I’d come to a brick wall so I went ahead. And whatever happens next, I always say that no one can do anything worse to me now. Nothing worse can happen than Caroline dying.’
She continued: ‘I think I’ve got as many answers as I can now. I hope this programme can set the record straight. I wish I’d done it before Caroline died.
‘At the time, though, in the middle of it, we were being told to stay silent, that it would all be OK and the charges would be dropped. Caroline was telling me, “Mum, don’t say anything”.’
The documentary, Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth, seeks to to get to the bottom of whether Caroline received ‘special treatment’ and was only prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police because of the scrutiny that came with her being a celebrity.
Christine added: ‘A different person could perhaps have come out the other side and it would be okay. Not Caroline.’
A CPS spokesperson has said in response: ‘A person’s celebrity status never influences whether a case is taken forward. We are satisfied that the prosecution was correctly brought.’
A Metropolitan police spokesperson also told the Guardian: ‘While there was organisational learning for us on points of process, no misconduct has been identified.’
The documentary also attempts to explain the pressure she was under when she died, as well as her mental health struggles, after inaccurate details were reported about her by tabloids and across social media.
Her death occurred on February 15, 2020, three months after she’d allegedly attacked her then-boyfriend, Lewis, at her Stoke Newington flat in North-East London. It’s claimed she hit him on the head with a lamp while he was sleeping and then went on to harm herself.
At the time it was suggested that Flack had hit Burton over the head with a lamp, leaving a scene with lots of blood, but Christine has suggested that the blood was actually Caroline’s.
‘All the blood was Caroline’s. That just wasn’t understood. To Caroline, it felt like there was no way out,’ she said.
Caroline was then arrested on suspicion of assault on December 13, 2019before she was told that the incident would be going to trial.
After her mental health worsened, Caroline took her own life on February 15, 2020.
Metro has contacted the CPS and Metropolitan Police for comment.
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