Former “Love Island” host Caroline Flack had warned police that she would kill herself if charged in an attack on her boyfriend that was so bloody, it was said to be “like a horror movie,” according to reports Monday.
The UK celebrity — who died by suicide in her London home Saturday — was first arrested in December after boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27, accused her of trying to kill him by smashing a lamp over his head.
Burton had called emergency services “almost begging” for help — and officers found the couple covered in so much blood, it was “like a horror movie,” the Times of London said, citing previous court testimony.
Flack — who claimed in her memoir that she was once Prince Harry’s “bit of rough” — was seriously wounded after self-harming during the fight, sources told the Sun. She was treated by medics for 12 hours before she was deemed fit enough to be interviewed by officers, the paper says.
When Flack, 40, was being questioned by the police, “she said, ‘I did it’” and threatened “that she will kill herself,” the court was previously told, according to the UK Times.
Prosecutors pressed on with charges even after Burton withdrew his complaint.
Flack, who had openly discussed her mental health issues, was “terrified” that police bodycam footage — showing her in a state of undress, covered in blood and severely distressed — would be shown in court, a source told the Sun.
The star’s talent agency attacked British prosecutors for continuing with the case “when they knew not only how very vulnerable Caroline was but also that the alleged victim did not support the prosecution.”
Prosecutors “should look at themselves today and how they pursued a show trial that was not only without merit but not in the public interest,” said Francis Ridley of Money Talent Management, saying it also “ultimately resulted in significant distress to Caroline.”
A legal source also told the Sun that Flack “should never have been prosecuted.”
“She should have been given urgent mental health treatment and psychiatric care,” the source insisted.
The Crown Prosecution Service sent its “deepest sympathies” to Flack’s family and friends, but did not comment further, according to London’s Evening Standard.