Read the analysis of Adam Bienkov, Nafeez Ahmed and Kyle Taylor into the preconditions and planning of Britain’s summer riots in the September edition of Byline Times. Available in most stores or digital edition online now.
Caroline Flack’s lawyer suggested this week that a decision by the Metropolitan Police to charge the late TV presenter may have been “driven by a desire” to appease the media, as he spoke out after the force confirmed that it will partly reinvestigate its decision to prosecute as “new evidence may be available”.
The development comes after a Byline Times special investigation into the case, ‘Closure For Caroline Flack: Her Family’s Four-Year Search for the Truth’, uncovered fresh information. It is the cover story for the April edition, out now.
The Crown Prosecution Service recommended that the former Love Island host be cautioned after an incident with her then boyfriend, Lewis Burton, in December 2019. This was overturned after an appeal from the Met, which resulted in the 40-year-old charged with assault by beating.
Caroline was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, north London, in February 2020 with a coroner later ruling that she killed herself after learning of the impending prosecution and fearing the publicity a trial would attract.
Her mother, Christine Flack, has been critical of the police’s handling of her daughter’s case from the outset, and is fighting to uncover the truth about how decisions around charging her unfolded.
She told Byline Times: “It is a big gap in our understanding of one of the most important moments in the whole thing. It has left us as a family in a terrible, stressful position. It is time he cleared it up, so we can get some justice for Carrie.”
Christine has made a fresh complaint to the Met because her family has been left with “important unanswered questions”.
Questioned about the decision to re-examine the case, Flack’s lawyer, Jonathan Coad, suggested that the Met Police’s relationship with the media may not be “entirely as it should be”, telling Sky News: “One suspects the reason why police made this decision was to appease the press pressure, which I remember being there… that she should be charged to rebut suggestions, ‘oh, well she’s had special treatment because she’s a celebrity’.”
He continued: “So, it may be that this decision, which indeed is unusual to appeal it, was driven by a desire not to fall foul of the press, and be criticised by the press, in which case is an entirely wrong reason for the appeal to be made.”
Getting ‘Closure for Carrie’ – the Family of Caroline Flack is Seeking New Answers from Scotland Yard after Byline Times probe
New evidence uncovered in a Byline Times #MediaToo investigation questions the assault charge that led to the TV presenter’s suicide
Following Caroline’s death, police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), conducted a review of the Met’s decision to charge her, but did not find any misconduct. It did, however, ask the Met to apologise to Caroline’s family for not recording the reason it appealed against the original CPS decision to only issue the presenter with a caution.
The force apologised in February last year, but Christine Flack rejected this, the BBC reported at the time.
The Met confirmed on 11 April that a new complaint was made by Flack’s family last week which it referred to the IOPC.
In a statement to the Press Association, the Met said that the IOPC decided that “the majority of the matters had previously been dealt with and no further action was required” but “one aspect” of the complaint had been returned to the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) for further consideration.