Caroline Flack: Met to look again at mum's complaint
Caroline Flack leaves Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court. Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire - Credit: PA
The Met Police will look again at a complaint that officers treated Caroline Flack differently due to her celebrity.
The Love Island presenter was found dead in her Stoke Newington flat aged 40 in February 2020.
A coroner ruled she took her own life after learning prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge over an incident involving her boyfriend, Lewis Burton.
Two months earlier, Ms Flack had been charged with assault by beating after police were called to an Islington flat on December 12 – although Mr Burton did not support the prosecution.
Ms Flack’s mother Christine had complained that the presenter was treated differently throughout the process due to her fame.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has instructed the force to reinvestigate.
Christine Flack told the BBC she still wants to know why her daughter was charged with the assault – despite prosecutors initially saying she should be given a caution.
She said: “I just want those answers to make me feel better and to make me know that I’ve done the right thing by Caroline.”
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She added: “It leaves us really sad and really angry because we want to know why they charged her.
“I just want the truth out there. I know it won’t bring her back but I’ve got to do it for her.”
Asked if she feels the decision to charge her daughter contributed to her death, Mrs Flack said: “Oh, totally. She couldn’t see a way out.”
She said she has now lost trust in the force, continuing: “There’s no trust at all. No trust at all. I just want the truth out there.
“And it won’t bring her back. I know it won’t bring her back. But I’ve got to do it for her.”
The MPS spokesperson said: “Following a review, the IOPC agreed with the MPS that service was acceptable in relation to seven areas of the complaints relating to the response and handling of the incident by the MPS.
“The IOPC has directed the MPS to reinvestigate one element of the complaints. This relates to the process involved in appealing the CPS decision to caution Ms Flack.
“We will re-examine this element of the investigative process.
“Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Caroline’s family.”
Additional reporting by PA.
