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Caroline Flack’s mother says paparazzi followed her and two other 70-year-olds across London after she ‘cleaned up the blood in Carrie’s flat’

Christine appears in a new documentary about the late Love Island presenter’s life and death

Ellie Harrison
Friday 12 March 2021 08:32 GMT
Caroline Flack from Love Island charged with assault

Caroline Flack’s mother Christine has condemned some parts of the British press for how they handled her late daughter’s arrest for assault.

Flack died by suicide last February just weeks before she was due to face trial over allegations that she had assaulted her boyfriend Lewis Burton at her flat, which she denied.

In a press conference for the new ITV documentary, Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death, Christine was asked what she wants newspaper editors to take away from the film.

She replied: “I don’t know if they’ll take away anything. I hope they take away that before they print anything, they should at least find out if it’s true, that would be one thing. Just find out the truth behind it. It’s someone’s life, it’s someone’s child. It’s someone’s sister or brother. I don’t think they’ve learned yet.”

Read more - ‘Close to the end, she asked us to help tell her story’ – The making of Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death

Christine added: “The same papers that wrote all the horrible things of Carrie after she died got in contact with me to say, ‘We’d love to do a lovely article about her.’ You think, ‘What? I don’t understand it.’ And you are frightened to say anything, I shouldn’t be saying what I’m saying now because there’ll be a backlash. But someone’s got to say something sometime and not be frightened about backlash because of what the paper will do to you.

“You have to keep on the good side of journalists. That can’t be right, can it? Should they follow you all over town? They followed me and two other 70-year-olds across London, the night after I cleaned up the blood in Carrie’s flat. That’s how bad they were.”

Read more - Caroline Flack’s mother calls out Lorraine Kelly and Graham Norton for laughing about daughter’s career woes

Shocking photos of a blood-stained bed were published after the altercation that led to Flack’s arrest. In the documentary, Christine explains that the blood was Flack’s and not Burton’s.

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Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death will air on ITV on 17 March.

You can find helpful tips on how to start a conversation, or if you are worried about someone else, on Samaritans website.

You can contact the Samaritans helpline by calling 116 123. The helpline is free and open 24 hours a day every day of the year.

You can also contact Samaritans by emailing jo@samaritans.org. The average response time is 24 hours.

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