Caroline Flack Dead

I detest shows like Love Island and Big Brother. The world of Facebook is a very dangerous place too, in many ways.

All this fame by reality shows is very disturbing for the Participants and the Producers should be far more responsible about how it affects them.

Last week news papers were running her into the ground and this week they are saying how sad that she has taken her own life.... The media has a lot to answer for. Her soul flies free x

Nothing will change.
They’ll still be a queue of people ten miles long, desperate to get on these reality shows - & to present them.

The only way it will stop is if TV companies just stop making these programs, like they did with Jeremy Kyle.

It’s beyond my how anyone can suggest that ‘mental health’ problems should prevent anyone being charged with assault. This assault is alleged to have taken place when the victim was sleeping. He dialled 999:and i read the tape was played in court, he said “she tried to kill me”.

It’s tragic that this young woman took her life. It isn’t the fault of anyone, her boyfriend, the police, the CPS. It’s a tragedy.

Very sad news

Unfortunately we live in an age where reality shows seem to interest huge swathes of the general public and they (public) feel they come to 'own' the personalities who are associated with them. So the whole thing becomes surreal for the presenters and even the participants - if you live in such a surreal bubble your mental health can't fail to suffer and we know that suicide is proportionately higher among people who have this experience. Caroline Flack bore the brunt of the media and became mentally fragile. This is an awful story. Personally, I think Love Island is absolutely trash and that the people who are foolish enough to allow their self-concepts to be damaged in the interests of becoming minor celebrities (I mean the participants) will rarely emerge as 'whole' people. I blame the money-grabbing TV companies. I'm really sad that this young woman felt so low. Why in heaven's name don't these employers (and I know she was replaced) provide proper mental health care for people in the spotlight.

tillybelle I don’t think FB comes into it
As far as I see it’s was twitter and instagram accounts on which she and her boyfriend were posting She had been advised by the court to keep off social media

It’s very sad. I don’t know what thoughts were going through her mind.
Rest in peace Caroline x

//It’s beyond me how anyone can suggest that ‘mental health’ problems should prevent anyone being charged with assault. This assault is alleged to have taken place when the victim was sleeping. He dialled 999 and I read the tape was played in court, he said “she tried to kill me”.//

Iam64 I agree. It’s beyond me too. If someone was alleged to have hit one of my children with a lamp while they were asleep I’d want them brought to justice no matter what mental health problems they had.

Isn’t it up to the judge to assess the person’s state and degree of responsibility?

EllanVannin - " The CPS should not have been involved. If lawmakers can't differentiate between intent and a mental health problem then forces need to be re-trained in what they're dealing with. How many times have police arrested a person and thrown them into a cell only for that person to be found to have MH problems ?

I'm sure many of us remember the story of the elderly blind man with a white stick which police mistook for a sword ? and the result was that the old man was tasered.

Police are too quick in judging at times and to my mind, this Flack case shouldn't have gone to court. Whether the boyfriend pressed charges,I don't know but somehow I doubt he did as only a prosecution would involve the CPS so where/who did the charges come from ? Questions are going to be asked."

I saw this on Twitter from a barrister, which could explain why the boyfriend not "pressing charges" (which, as I understand it, a member of the public cannot do) doesn't preclude a prosecution going ahead.

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Cases cannot be dropped simply because a complainant doesn’t want their partner prosecuted. Such a system would reward those who successfully coerce victims to withdraw. Sometimes cases must be pursued without the consent of the alleged victim.

Oh Ellen you can be vulnerable and commit a crime and be prosecuted or be a thug( whatever that is) and completely innocent. Your posts are really scary.

The CPS has much to answer for.

What have the CPS to answer for in this case precisely Psal? Deciding to prosecute a celebrity? If you, like many others, are trying to blame the CPS for her death, then that’s a thoroughly irresponsible thing to be doing?. Or maybe you’ve got the whole evidence file, have interviewed everyone concerned, and are a senior prosecutor of many years standing ?

Caroline Flack was the presenter on Love Island, not a contestant, merlotgran. I watched the last series and she came across as warm, kind, incredibly competent and very sweet. Depression is a vile thing. What I find hard to comprehend is the nerve of Piers Morgan who has in the past criticised her and said awful things about her yet is now saying, "what a tragedy". Awful man.
As for her trial - I was amazed it was going ahead as her boyfriend didn't want her to be charged. If he'd offered no evidence, surely it would have been thrown out? The police do love a celeb case though, don't they?

If the police were called he would have given a statement

Why do the CPS have much to answer for Psalmody? They were presented with the facts of the case and proceeded as they would for any other case i.e. the facts they were presented with at the time. Are you suggesting that celebrities, or those who have mental/emotional ill health, should not face the same lines of enquiry?

Very sad.

The CPS had a solid case which met the threshold for court.
They had 999 recording of the boyfriend describing the incident AND his statement in person saying the same at the scene as well as what the police witnessed at the scene.

In non civil cases particularly involving violence you cant decide "not to prosecute" as it is in the public interest to prosecute.

The threshold for prosecution is prohibitively high, yet this case met it.

Its not uncommon for victims of DV to not want to leave or go to court. That doesnt mean that the courts should just let it go away.

As for her trial - I was amazed it was going ahead as her boyfriend didn't want her to be charged. If he'd offered no evidence, surely it would have been thrown out? The police do love a celeb case though, don't they?

Thats not what happened
He called 999. There were transcripts
The police arrived and he again gave a statement to the police
The police witnessed a violent scene
He later tried to "drop charges" which you cant do in cases like this.
She breached her bail conditions.

The police cant just make a case reach thr threshold for prosecution for fun!

Paperback as others have said, sufficient evidence was gathered at the time for the CPS to prosecute. It’s not in the gift of victims to decide whether a prosecution should happen. There are se versa reasons for this - including as others have said that victims could be coerced into withdrawing charges as in ‘If you press charges I’ll beat you up again’ and also why should a perpetrator of domestic violence go unpunished on one persons say so and be free to attack that person again or someone else. Honestly, do we have to keep repeating thes self-evident facts? It’s getting tedious

Do some posts on here really represent the general public’s understanding of how the criminal justice system operates? If do god help us all

I can't see why the CPS had to prosecute except that she is female and they wanted to make an example of her.

Its because it is hard in DV to reach the threshold for prosecution. Often once the police are on the scene the victims story changes to protect the abuser. That didnt happen in this case, his statement matched the 999 call and there was physical evidence on the scene.

The evidence met the threshold which is often hard to meet
Clear 999 transcript
Victim statement
Physical evidence

Why wouldnt they prosecute?

This is from a Metro article dated 23 December 2019.

[At Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court]: “In reference to the 999 call, Katie Weiss, prosecuting, said: ‘He [Burton] is almost begging the operator to send help... He had been asleep and had been hit in the head with a lamp. His face was covered in blood. She had seen text messages which had led her to believe he was cheating on her.’

Weiss said Burton told the operator: ‘I’ve just woken up, she has cracked my head open. She tried to kill me mate.’

Weiss argued: ...’he received significant injury to his head.’

Weiss claimed that a body camera worn by a police officer captured the injury, and said the footage and 999 call would be used during the trial.”

metro.co.uk/2019/12/23/caroline-flack-hit-boyfriend-lamp-lewis-burton-tells-police-tried-kill-11952182/

It sounds like the CPS had good evidence. Victims of domestic abuse do quite often not want a prosecution to go ahead, but it’s in the public interest if it does. The CPS were just doing their job.

I have to agree with those who say to attack a sleeping person with a lamp and leave them bloodied, even if that person then denies that is what happened, is a pretty violent act, for heaven's sake she could have killed him, and again I would reiterate if the assailant had been a man and the victim a woman, would the Twitteratti have shown the same level of sympathy if a prosecution ensued.

I think it's understandable to feel sorry for anyone who takes their own life, but recognise that person may well have had some unpleasant traits. Before her death, one of her neighbours gave an interview where he alleged she would return home in the early hours of the morning, party noisily for hours waking up those who lived directly above her, and when asked her to reduce the noise she refused. Celebrities such as Caroline Flack are expected to project a professional persona to the public, possibly one that is quite false. In her case it quite possibly belied the troubled individual she clearly was. It's a great shame she took her own life and didn't get the appropriate help.

Deifying and sanctifying someone who has died in sad circumstances helps no one. If I knew any of CF’s friends or family I would be kind to them of course at the moment but that’s another matter altogether.