Complaint by Caroline Flack's mother sparks reinvestigation of police treatment

The police watchdog has instructed the Metropolitan Police to reinvestigate a complaint made by Caroline Flack's mother over whether her daughter was treated differently by officers because of her fame.

The Love Island presenter, who was from Norfolk, took her own life two years ago at the age of 40.

A coroner ruled her death came after she learned prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge over an incident with her boyfriend Lewis Burton.

A spokesperson for the Met said it had been instructed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to look again at a one particular aspect of an old complaint.

A spokesperson from the Met Police said: "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."

It concluded: "Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Caroline's family."

Caroline Flack's mother, Christine, 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."

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. 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.”

Flack found out the day before her death that she would be prosecuted with the charge that she hit Burton with her phone while he slept over concerns he had been cheating on her.

Friends said she was expecting the case to be dropped after her lawyers applied for it to be thrown out.

Coroner Mary Hassell found that Flack killed herself because she knew she was being prosecuted and could not face the press coverage.

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