The Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed it will be reviewing its decision to pursue charges against Love Island star Caroline Flack after her prosecution faced backlash following her suicide.
Caroline, 41, killed herself on Saturday, February 15, just weeks before she was due to go to court for allegedly attacking her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, with a lamp.
She had denied the charge and Burton, who received a head injury during the alleged incident, insisted he “never supported” a prosecution.
He previously said she had become the subject of a “witch hunt”.
Yet the day before she died Caroline was informed by lawyers the CPS was pursuing charges.
After her death, her managers slammed the CPS.
Francis Ridley, of Money Talent Management, said in a statement at the time: “[The CPS] pursued this when they knew not only how vulnerable Caroline was but also the alleged victim disputed the CPS version of events.
Caroline Flack killed herself on Saturday, February 15 (Image: PA)
“The CPS should look at how they pursued a show trial that was not only without merit but resulted in significant distress to Caroline.”
Following a Freedom of Information request the CPS said there would “be a post-case review panel conducted by a deputy chief crown prosecutor.”
Last night the CPS said: “Post-case debriefings are not uncommon.
“They are held to identify good practice and learning points. But we do not comment on the outcome.”
Asked if it would rexamine the decision to charge, a CPS spokesman added: “The review will look at the general CPS handling of the case and, obviously the decisions behind charging is part of that.”
The Metropolitan Police has already referred itself to the police watchdog over its contact with Caroline before her death. It is standard practice for a referral to be made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct when a person who has had recent contact with police dies, the force said.
Caroline had stepped down from the ITV2 dating show after being arrested.
Caroline was due to go to court for allegedly attacking her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, with a lamp (Image: @carolineflack/Instagram)
She was released on bail but ordered not to contact Mr Burton before the trial.
The freedom of information request also confirmed that Flack’s case was deemed a “complex or sensitive case”.
It said: “The CPS has an internal process of undertaking routine case management panels on complex or sensitive cases to ensure they are being properly managed.”
The CPS has confirmed it will be looking into Caroline’s assault charge (Image: PA)
There is no record of how much was spent on the prosecution as all who worked on it were in-house lawyers.
The CPS said it, “does not record time spent by internal lawyers, paralegals and administrative staff on a case by case basis therefore we are unable to provide figures in relation to internal staff cost of preparing this case”.
The spokesperson added: “There was no cost for using external solicitors or barristers as all work on this case was undertaken by CPS in-house lawyers.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
