CPS defends decision to drop charges against ex-UTD star but not Caroline Flack

The Crown Prosecution Service has defended its decision to drop an assaultcharge against former footballer Nicky Butt but pursue the case against Caroline Flack.

Ex-Manchester United player Butt, 45, had been accused of beating his estranged wife Shelley Barlow last April, but the case was discontinued when prosecutors offered no evidence.

It is understood that Mr Butt's defence was that he accidentally damaged hermobile phone, and did not know how she had sustained a cut to her hand.

The CPS came under fire in the wake of the death of TV presenter Flack, 40, who apparently took her own life while awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.

A spokesman said that the circumstances of the two cases were different, and that no more details could be revealed because they involved private family matters that had not been discussed in open court.

When deciding whether to pursue a case, prosecutors must consider firstlywhether there is enough evidence, and secondly whether it is in the publicinterest to do so.

Ms Barlow did not want to give evidence against her estranged husband, and Ms Flack's boyfriend Lewis Burton had said he did not support the prosecution against her.

Former chief crown prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal said that, whilethe case against Caroline Flack was an allegedly deliberate assault, Mr Buttmaintained that he had accidentally damaged his former partner's phone.

Mr Afzal said: "Without the complainant giving evidence, it's virtually impossible to rebut a defence of accident."

On Wednesday Ms Flack's family released an unpublished Instagram post written by the presenter in which she maintained that the incident was an accident.