Five months on from Caroline Flack’s tragic death weeks before she was due to stand trial for an alleged assault on her partner, prosecutor Ed Beltrami has spoken out publicly to defend his decision to pursue the prosecution, despite the fact that Caroline’s partner Lewis Burton had withdrawn his complaint.
Discover our latest podcast
Mr Beltrami told Wales Online:
You've got to come to a decision as a prosecutor. You've got to do what you think is right. You cannot do what you think is popular.’ He went on to explain his reasoning: ‘The facts of this case were the guy had made his complaint, he had phoned the police, he was terrified he was going to be killed, he's been hit over the head with a weapon, namely a lamp, he's got a cut to his head, and she's made an admission to the police at the scene.
However, in a statement made to the Eastern Daily Press, Christine Flack disputed this and said that it was ‘deeply regrettable that Mr Beltrami could not have let my beautiful daughter rest in peace.’ She criticised Mr Beltrami for ‘repeating untruths’ about Caroline, saying that the CPS ‘put into the public domain three claims which were either not true, or which they knew were misleading.’
She said that claims that Lewis sustained a ‘significant injury’ were untrue, as were claims that he had been hit by a lamp, which Lewis himself has also denied. Finally, she hit out at the CPS for ‘failure to make clear it was not Mr Burton’s blood’ but Caroline’s own in photographs of the scene which were provided to the press.
She said:
You can only imagine Caroline’s anguish at the perception she had caused someone else an injury that led to so much blood and not being able to say it was hers for fear that it would be obvious that she had made an attempt on her own life – and she would lose her career.
A spokesperson for the CPS said:
Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Caroline Flack. It is normal practice for prosecutors to hold a debriefing in complex or sensitive cases after they have ended. This has taken place and found that the case was handled appropriately and in line with our published legal guidance.
