Beauty queen stripped of title after 20 minutes

A row broke out today after a beauty queen was stripped of her title just 20 minutes after being crowned.

Chantelle Lewis, 17, was left humiliated after she was told she could not be the Christchurch Snow Queen 2008 because she did not live locally.

Her mother Tracy Lewis said: "They actually called out 'The Snow Queen for 2008 is Chantelle Lewis'. They sat her in a chair, crowned her like a proper beauty queen.

"She was so excited and then 20 minutes later they wouldn't let her leave and snatched it all back off her.

"It was just so awful, you don't do that to a 17-year-old.

"She was left humiliated."

She had been interviewed by the local paper, her photograph was taken and she was congratulated by the mayor when the judges discovered she lived a few miles outside Christchurch near Bournemouth airport, and stripped her of the title on Sunday.

The sixth former at St Peter's School does stay at her 22-year-old sister Sam's Christchurch flat, a former Miss Bournemouth, sometimes during the week and she was Christchurch Carnival Queen attendant two years ago.

"If they had a problem why did they pick her?," added Mrs Lewis, who has 12 daughters and a son.

"I would have accepted it if they had disqualified her from the start. They had enough time to look at the application if she didn't qualify."

Christchurch Snow Queen 2008 organiser Lillian Jefferis said she was told after the crowning that Chantelle was not a local resident.

Rebecca Allan, 14, who lives in the area, was moved up from second place to become Snow Queen.