Caroline Flack’s grieving mother attacks police at suicide inquest
THE mother of Caroline Flack has accused the authorities of “having it in” for her daughter after a coroner ruled she took her own life because she discovered her assault trial was going ahead.
At the inquest into her daughter’s death, Chris Flack told a senior police officer she ought to be “disgusted with herself” for pursuing assault charges against someone who was suicidal.
The television presenter, best known for the reality show Love Island, was found hanged in February after discovering she was to face trial for an alleged attack on Lewis Burton, her boyfriend, at her north London flat.
Mary Hassell, the coroner, said Ms Flack, 40, took her own life after struggling with her mental health.
She said: “In spite of the fact she may have led, to some, a charmed life, actually the more famous she got, the more some of these difficulties increased. She had to deal with the media in a way most of us don’t.
“It was played out in the national press and that was incredibly difficult for her. She faced the prospect of not working in the job she loved.
“I find the reason for her taking her life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certain, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity; it would all come down upon her.” Mrs Flack, speaking via video link, said she believed her daughter had been treated differently because of her celebrity. The inquest previously heard prosecutors initially wanted to caution her but the police appealed against this.
Det Insp Lauren Bateman, the senior officer on the case, denied Flack was treated differently because of her fame. The inquest at Poplar coroner’s court, in east London, heard that when police went to a domestic incident at Flack’s home on Dec 12, she was found naked and bloody. She told officers: “I hit him – he was cheating on me.”
Ms Bateman said Flack had not made it clear in her police interview later what she was admitting to and so it was not felt a caution was appropriate.
Mrs Flack said: “If it had been an ordinary person, you wouldn’t have prosecuted. I think you should be disgusted with yourself.
“This girl killed herself because you put an appeal through. The initial decision to caution her would have been accepted by Caroline and she would have been alive today.”
She alleged: “Both the CPS and the police came to this inquest to cover up their part in Caroline’s death.”
Lisa Ramsarran, the Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, told the coroner: “The way we dealt with Caroline is no different in the way we would have dealt with anybody else.”