Caroline Flack’s inquest resumes today six months after star’s tragic death

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Caroline Flack wrote a tearful final message hoping that she and her boyfriend would ‘find harmony’, her inquest heard today, as the star’s mother blasted the Crown Prosecution Service for pursuing a ‘show trial’ of her daughter.  

The 40-year-old former Love Island and X Factor presenter was found hanged at her home in Stoke Newington, north-east London, on February 15 this year. 

On a coffee table a paramedic saw a note that read: ‘I hope me and Lewis can one day find harmony’. 

Flack had been due to stand trial for assaulting her boyfriend, former tennis player and model Lewis Burton, in December, after police arriving at the bloodstained scene described it looking like ‘a horror movie’.

Her mother, Christine, said today in a written statement: ‘I believe Caroline was seriously let down by the authorities and in particular the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) for pursuing the case. 

‘I believe this was a show trial. I feel the prosecutor was unkind to Caroline and my family. I was threatened with arrest when I tried to speak.’

Flack’s mother could be seen weeping on video link as her statement was read by Coroner Mary Hassell at Poplar Coroner’s Court in east London. 

Earlier today, the inquest heard how the star’s friends and twin sister tried desperately to break into the house where she killed herself. 

The first witness statement was that of Stephen Teasdale, father of Flack’s hair stylist friend Louise, 36, who said he went to the scene after the star’s twin sister Jody phoned to say she could not get in to Flack’s address.

He said: ‘We came to the flat and tried to force entry. We thought about phoning the police but knew the landlady … We got the key and let ourselves into the flat.’

Mr Teasdale said he found Flack’s lifeless body, hanged.

He said: ‘I brought her (down) and Jody started CPR. We were giving CPR for somewhere between five and ten minutes, then the police took over.’

Christine Flack today continued her statement by attacking the CPS’s decision to include ‘disputed evidence’ in her daughter’s assault trial. 

‘The result of the media attention of this hearing forced Caroline to leave her home which she loved,’ she said. ‘Being well known should not allow special treatment, but should not allow making an example of someone.’  

She added: ‘She lost the job she worked so hard at. I was with her the weekend before her death, in her new flat.

‘When I said goodbye to her that day I never thought it would be for the last time. I kissed her and she said: ‘Bye mum’.

Flack’s sister, Jody said she believed Flack tried to kill herself in December, ahead of her first appearance at the magistrates court for assault.

She said Flack was ‘in a very anxious state of mind’ before her death and said an ambulance had been called for her four times previously.

‘Heartbreak is something Caroline found extremely difficult,’ Jody said. ‘She attempted to take her own life the night before she appeared in court. I believe the shame … was too much to deal with.’

Brian Wells, a doctor called to Flack’s hotel room the night before her court appearance, said the presenter was inebriated and had apparently ‘taken a small overdose’. However, she was not suicidal, nor did she need hospital treatment, the court was told.

Today’s inquest also heard about the immediate aftermath of Flack’s death on February 15. 

Paramedic David O’Toole said he entered the property that evening and saw two women distraught on a sofa.

He said the victim appeared to have been ‘dead for a number of hours’ and that the women said they last saw her alive at 10.30am that day.

One of the crew pointed to a handwritten note placed on an open magazine on the coffee table, which referenced ‘Lewis’. 

Pc Tim Child said there was evidence of suicide attempts elsewhere in the property. 

Det Sgt Jonathan Maharaj said there was evidence of ‘a number of calls’ made and received on Flack’s mobile phone, and that she conducted searches for ‘people who blame’ as well as for suicide.

Coroner Mary Hassell welcomed Flack’s mother, Christine, and sister, Jody, to today’s hearing. They are watching via a video link. 

In her opening remarks resuming the inquest, she said: ‘We are here simply to find the answer to four questions – who died, when they died, where they died and how they came about their death.’

The court heard the deceased was born Caroline Louise Flack, on November 9, 1979 in Enfield, her occupation was a television presenter, and that she died at home in Stoke Newington on February 15.     

Pathologist Professor Michael Sheaff found Flack died from hanging.

Tamsin Lewis, psychiatrist and lifestyle medicine practitioner in Mayfair, said in a statement that she was contacted by Flack’s personal assistant on December 17, 2019 and met her for an appointment.  

Ms Lewis said Flack had ‘a bandaged finger’ following a fight with her boyfriend, ‘but said it was nothing more than a lover’s tiff, heightened by alcohol’.

Ms Lewis added: ‘I spent much of the time listening to her concerns about the current media storm, her relationships and her family.

‘Her mood appeared low with a reactive effect, for example every time her phone notified her. She reported having panicky feelings all day … a sense of impending doom.’

She said Flack did not say she had suicidal intent.

‘She said she had been drinking excessively to numb herself,’ Ms Lewis said. ‘She said sleep had been impossible.’

Flack’s former boyfriend Lewis Burton told the court today in a written statement: ‘The last time I saw Caroline she was very upset, in fact devastated, she was not in a good place emotionally.

‘Sometimes she talked about taking her own life when she was extremely upset. The media were constantly bashing her character, writing hurtful stories … generally hounding her daily.

‘What was worrying her most was the police case and losing her presenting job on Love Island, plus not being able to see me.’

It was not stated in court when Mr Burton last saw Flack. 

Jody Flack also criticised media coverage of her sister, telling today’s inquest: ‘She was called a ‘killer’ and an ‘abuser’ on the front of the newspapers. The press and the public found this a very entertaining angle, and was spiralling out of control.

‘Her life and reputation she worked hard to build was falling apart … because of a false accusation. It was our belief it would not be happening to her if she wasn’t in the public eye. At worst, her career and reputation, so precious to her, had been taken away.’

She said sections of the press were ‘hounding her’ and had paid the neighbours to inform them on her movements.

Jody said: ‘Caroline spent the last few months of her life hiding inside, scared of the abuse. Caroline seemed very sad the day before her death – she seemed to have lost her fight.’  

Flack’s family had increased concerns about her mental state as her trial loomed, while Mr Burton also pleaded to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to drop the case.

Her death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of Flack’s social media posts from December in which she urged people to ‘be kind’.

Prior to today’s inquest, Flack’s management team criticised the CPS for conducting a ‘show trial’ which prompted a review into her death.

However, the CPS found the case was handled ‘appropriately’.

Flack’s mother Chris said her daughter’s legal team and psychologist warned about the potential for the former Strictly champion to kill herself.

‘The CPS were fully aware of these matters and the risk when they decided to continue the prosecution,’ Mrs Flack said.

She described an allegation that her daughter hit Mr Burton over the head with a lamp as ‘false’.

She also said the claim was denied by both Mr Burton and Flack and ‘was completely inconsistent with the injury that Mr Burton sustained’. 

Flack’s family also posthumously shared a social media post the troubled star had written but was persuaded by advisers not to publish before her death in which she disclosed having an ’emotional breakdown’.

She wrote: ‘I’ve been having some sort of emotional breakdown for a very long time. But I am not a domestic abuser. The reason I am talking today is because my family can’t take anymore.

‘I’ve lost my job. My home. My ability to speak. And the truth has been taken out of my hands and used as entertainment. I’ve been pressing the snooze button on many stresses in my life – for my whole life.

‘I’ve accepted shame and toxic opinions on my life for over 10 years and yet told myself it’s all part of my job. No complaining.

‘The problem with brushing things under the carpet is …. they are still there and one day someone is going to lift that carpet up and all you are going to feel is shame and embarrassment.’

Her suicide was the latest connected to Love Island, following the deaths of contestants Mike Thalassitis, 26, in March 2019 and Sophie Gradon, 32, in June 2018.

Miss Gradon’s boyfriend Aaron Armstrong, 25, died three weeks after he found his girlfriend.

To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/

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