Hundreds of protesters gathered to demand government action on the worsening air quality and pollution in India’s capital New Delhi. Protesters say the government must come up with a time-bound plan to address the pollution crisis.
Christine Flack has been investigating the circumstances around her daughter Caroline’s death for over five years.
The former host of Love Island took her own life at the age of 40 in February 2020 after learning that prosecutors were going to press ahead with an assault charge. In a new Disney+ documentary her mum, friends, agent and lawyer explain how she was let down and left feeling helpless. Also there is powerful new evidence mistakes were made by police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Here are the new facts, details and important moments raised in the documentary which also dispel some previous media reports which contained errors….
On the night of December 12, 2019, Caroline and boyfriend Lewis Burton had both been out, separately.
Mum Christine says in the doc: “They got back, and Carrie said, funnily enough, their cabs drew up at the same time, and they came in, and they’d both had a bit to drink. So she said we were laughing and joking. And they went up to bed, and she said Lewis fell asleep, but then his phone went. She picked the phone up, and there were texts from another woman.”
Caroline’s lawyer Paul Morris then takes up the story: “Caroline had found out that there were messages from a third party on the phone. She was upset. She was holding on to the phone. It was the confirmation of her worst fears, and she kept it in her hand, and with that, she’s trying to wake Lewis up.
“It’s a firm gesture, but the phone’s in the hand. He was frustrated that she’d accessed his telephone. She was upset at what she’d seen on the phone.” After noticing his head was bleeding Lewis threatened to call the police and then did call 999. Caroline was screaming “if you call the police I’m done” he allegedly argued back and called 999.
Caroline’s friend Mollie Grosberg said: “I don’t know if he really meant to do that(call 999) but it was a very charged situation, and they were absolutely wasted.”
Very sadly Caroline also told Mollie at that moment she felt her boyfriend was “gone” and her career could also be over and so she deliberately self harmed before the police arrived. This meant there was blood in the room and on their bed.
Police came onto the scene and Lewis was initially confused about what Caroline hit him with and said a lamp and then a fan. When the policeman replied ‘what that fan?’ Lewis said: “I don’t know what it was.”
The only object taken by police as evidence was his phone, which now had a cracked corned, possibly caused during the row. Lewis later would confirm on social media that it was a phone used.
On the bodycam Caroline said: “It’s all me, I did it. I didn’t know my phone was going to hit him in the head.”
Lewis then tells police: “I love her. I don’t want this to be in the press. She’ll harm herself, I’m telling you.”
He did not require medical attention but Caroline did for her injuries. After being hospital overnight she then had to go to a police cell.
The Detective Inspector on duty that night overruled the CPS who initially suggested giving Caroline a caution. This was unusual.
Christine Flack explains: “I’ve managed to get my hands on the original decision from the Crown Prosecution Service, and it says ‘I do not believe that the case is in the public interest to prosecute as the injured party does not support the allegation. There is no domestic violence history between the parties. The suspect is 40 years old and has no previous convictions. The cut the injured person did not require medical intervention’. Therefore, they just wanted to carry a caution.”
In late December after she was charged, Caroline was not coping well and her agent and legal team made the decision for her to see a psychiatrist.
Lawyer Paul Morris says: “It was evident that there should have been a greater mental health assessment and the impact that a prosecution would have on her mental health. For that reason, a psychiatrist was instructed in order to prepare a report and the decision was made to disclose that to the prosecution.”
But despite this new information coming to light, there was no change to proceedings, and not even a delay.
Caroline’s agent Louisa Booth said: “So we sent a psychiatric report to the CPS saying she is not fit and well mentally to go through this. We had professional analysis. And that was ignored.
“We were so taken aback actually, that they dismissed the report from the psychiatrist. You’re screaming into a void and no one is listening. So if that’s how we felt as management, how did she feel?”
On this decision mum Christine told the Mirror : “It was shocking. The whole thing has been shocking. They were going to pursue the case, whatever. They wouldn’t let anything change their minds.
“And that’s what Caroline knew in the end, there was no way out. She just couldn’t see one.
“Everybody was telling her it’d be all right. It was an accident.
“There were no charges brought against her by Lewis. She couldn’t have done anything more, people around her couldn’t have done anything more.
“But they were going to take it to trial. And I think they were saying about showing body cam of her being so distressed. She couldn’t take that and she just couldn’t see her way out in the end.”
After failing to stop the case continuing, Caroline then could have died the night before she was due in court as she felt her life spiralling out of control. The documentary reveals she took pills and drank the minibar dry, afraid of what would happen next.
The photos of her entering court that day were of a woman pushed to the edge and who had an hour’s sleep. And yet worse was to come.
The prosecution lawyer in court, Katie Weiss, told the court Lewis had been hit with a lamp and that police said the scene was like “a horror movie”.
Caroline maintained throughout that she hit Lewis with a phone as it was still in her hand when she was using her hand to wake him. Lewis thought she used a fan or maybe a lamp but admitted he didn’t know. Later he confirmed it was a phone. Somehow this initial comment recorded on body cams was taken as fact and said in court which changed the entire narrative.
And rather than being a “significant” head injury with lots of blood at the scene as was inferred by Weiss, the blood at the scene was Caroline’s own. One of Christine’s main wishes from speaking to her in recent days is to dispel the “myth” of the lamp being used in the altercation by her daughter.
Caroline opened up about the impact of her arrest in unseen footage she was planning to use for her own documentary. It showed the impact the charges were having on her.
In a video taken after her arrest, Flack said: “I’m doing this because I want to remember what I went through and what my family went through, what my boyfriend went through, what his family went through. It’s three days after I’ve been arrested for having a fight with my boyfriend. I’ve always co-operated with the police since they arrived. I was put in a cell.
“I was promised that I was anonymous and this wouldn’t be going further, and it was a really private situation.
“Five minutes after I left the station, they’ve gone to the press, all the details, everything. Since then, I lost my job, the job I’ve worked all my life on. I’m living in a hotel. I’m receiving so much abuse.”
Flack, who is also seen crying in the video and wearing a burberry scarf, added: “It was a fight. I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, the only person I ever hurt is myself.”
Caroline had some good days in February and moved home to avoid photographers and she also stopped drinking, walking her dog Ruby and hanging out with friend Mollie and her twin sister and mum.
But she was clinging to the idea the case would still be dropped. She found out it would definitely go ahead on Feb 13.
She messaged her friend: “They won’t drop the case. My life is over. The bodycam. My head is throbbing.”
She went into a meltdown, trashing her flat and friends including Mollie rushed there and had to call for an ambulance, but she eventually calmed down and managed to go to sleep. However she then urged friends to go home the next morning as her sister would be coming to the flat later on February 15.
But her sister Jody arrived at a locked door and the sounds of Caroline’s dog barking. Once inside she learned that Caroline had died.
In a final note Caroline left in her flat when she died, she wrote: “Please let this court case be dropped, and myself and Lewis find harmony.”
Former CPS chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal studies the police documents gathered by Christine and is in no doubt she should have only been given a caution for what happened.
He tells her: “Having looked at all your evidence I can’t understand why they rushed the judgement. This was a case where there is no previous history, no coercive behaviour. Mr Burton never wanted this case and was adamant. This was a one off occasion where she lost her temper and did what she did, which she accepts. For all of those reasons, the very worst thing that should have happened was a caution.”
He added: “I have prosecuted thousands of these cases, none of this makes sense. Almost immediately in the cold light of day, prosecutors would have formed a view this case is going nowhere and they should have stopped the case. They are required to stop the case where there is insufficient evidence. I can’t think of any reason to proceed, unless they were scared of what the media were going to say about them. It is not about losing face, this is about justice. My take on it is Caroline would still be with us if certain decisions weren’t taken in that month or two.”
Christine also speaks to Jess McDonald, a former police Detective Constable who was working in London at the time of the incident, including in a safeguarding unit which deals with domestic violence.
Jess says: “I’ve been through all the paperwork in Caroline’s case, and there’s just so much that shouts out to me as abnormal treatment and mishandling.”
She goes on to highlight an email sent by the detective inspector to challenge the decision to only caution Caroline, where the DI insists there is not a clear admission of guilt.
Jess adds: “Caroline admits guilt consistently. She never denies that she hit Lewis with the phone.”
* Both episodes of Caroline Flack: Search For The Truth premiere on Disney+ today.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Refuge is the largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK and can be Contacted free 24/7 on 0808 2000 247.
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Lewis Crocker’s manager Jamie Conlan feels the outcome of Saturday’s middleweight rematch between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn will have implications for the IBF welterweight champion.
Eubank won a gruelling first fight between the pair in April and they are set to do it all again at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend.
Crocker won the IBF world title with a split-decision win over Paddy Donovan in their own rematch at Belfast’s Windsor Park in September, and a first title defence against Benn has been floated as one of his main options.
However, should Benn suffer a second-straight loss, it would prove a major stumbling block for that match-up to take place next and Conlan says that while they will be keeping a close eye on events in London, there are other options including a possible unification with WBC champion Mario Barrios.
“Our plans are still to do Croc and Benn, but we have also had two or three other conversations including Mario Barrios for a unification,” Conlan told BBC Sport NI.
Conlan was speaking at Belfast’s Devenish Complex after a nine-fight card that was topped by Cookstown’s Teo Alin’s victory over Lee Gormley to capture the BUI Celtic super-featherweight champion.
Although Crocker is his team’s standard bearer, Conlan is keen to develop the next crop of prospects and has plans to promote an event that will see title opportunites for Belfast flyweight Conor Quinn, Tokyo Olympian Kurt Walker and Coleraine’s Matthew Boreland.
“We have had tentative talks with the Waterfront Hall for a Commonwealth title fight for Conor Quinn, and Kurt Walker in a Commonwealth silver, Matty Boreland in a Commonwealth silver,” he confirmed.
The Ashes returns on 21 November and to get you in the mood we thought we’d Test your knowledge with a quiz.
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff was a legend in the competition, being named player of the series for the 2005 Ashes, and captaining England in an unsuccessful defence down under.
He dismissed 17 different Australia players in Ashes Tests across his career. Can you name them all?
Joe Root. Century. Australia.
You know the rest by now.
England’s greatest batter has done almost everything except score a Test hundred down under.
Some say he needs one during this winter’s Ashes series to secure his status as an all-time great. Others would dismiss that as nonsense.
Root has played 14 Tests in Australia and scored 892 runs, a respectable return.
But while he has made nine fifties down under – only Sir Alastair Cook and Ian Bell have made more for England in Australia this century – Root’s average of 35.68 in Australia is the lowest of any country he has batted in more than twice.
The blot may not be huge but it remains on Root’s copybook.
Root’s first and most obvious weakness is one of his biggest strengths elsewhere.
He scores an unusually high amount of runs behind square on the off side – 20% of what analysts CricViz call his ‘controlled runs’ – but with Australian pitches the quickest and bounciest in the world, that becomes dangerous.
“Clearly, the late glide through third man that he plays on a regular basis in the UK, it does just bounce a little bit more [in Australia],” says former England captain Michael Vaughan – one of England’s best two performing batters in Australia this century.
The other, Root’s former team-mate Cook, agrees.
Looking deeper, Root’s problems in Australia have come almost exclusively against pace bowling.
He averages 74.33 against spinners down under, even with his Ashes career coinciding with a modern great in Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
More specifically, Root’s issues have come while facing full or good-length deliveries from pacers, against which his average drops to 26.9 and 26.2 respectively.
When the ball is short, even with the pacey surfaces, that average climbs to 63.
The difference is stark.
The Ashes phony war began in the summer when David Warner described Root’s front pad as a “surfboard”, suggesting he is an lbw candidate.
While it is true Australia targeted Root’s pads at the start of the 2017-18 series and dismissed him in that manner twice, eight of Root’s 10 dismissals in the last series down under were from deliveries that would have missed the stumps.
Even in England in 2023, five of Root’s six dismissals to Australian pacemen would not have threatened the timbers.
Australian plans have changed – or, at the least, Australia are using that inswinger to the pads more sparingly.
Of those 10 dismissals in 2021-22, seven were from balls pitching 6-8m from the stumps – what is regarded as a ‘good’ length – and nine seamed away.
It resulted in eight catches between wicketkeeper and gully – four of which were Root attempting to steer to third man off either the front or back foot.
“They say in Australia horizontal bat shots are the way to go because if it bounces it will fly over the top,” Vaughan says.
CricViz
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Bowling balls on a good length that move slightly away is hardly cricketing astrophysics. It is the oldest plan in the sport’s book.
You can argue Root’s struggles in Australia are also a result of bad timing.
He made his first appearance on Australian shores in the 2013-14 series when arms, legs and a moustache came together for Mitchell Johnson, allowing him to produce a performance for the ages.
On two tours since, Root has faced world-class trio Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc and when Hazlewood missed the Boxing Day Test of 2021, Australia summoned a 32-year-old who appeared factory-made for such dismissals.
Scott Boland bowled 74 deliveries to Root in the remaining three Tests of that series, conceded 39 runs and dismissed Root four times by consistently probing at that fuller length and finding nicks.
One bowler has rarely caused Root such problems.
That run left the right-hander’s average against Boland at an alarming 9.8 but when the Victorian came to England in 2023, Root scored 63 runs from his 75 balls without being dismissed.
With Cummins out of the series opener and Root holding strong records against Starc and Lyon, the Boland head-to-head could be crucial in determining whether Root can break his Australian century duck.
Root has been asked repeatedly about his lack of an Australian century in recent months and has given typically sensible answers.
“I go there in a completely different capacity to last time, different circumstances, a lot more experience now and I feel like I have a really good understanding of my game and how I want to manage it in these conditions,” Root said in September.
Previously he has said he wanted the ton “too much”.
It is undeniable Root has travelled in superb red-ball form – an average of 63.44 in 2025 and 14 Test centuries since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took over in 2022.
He is a far more aggressive batter now and focuses less on technique, but while he went into the 2021-22 Ashes series on an even better run – that tour came at the end of the calendar year in which he scored an England-record 1,708 Test runs – there is one major difference from his previous two tours: he is no longer captain.
Root scored eight of his nine Australian fifties during his two tours as captain and six of those failures to convert came after more than 100 draining overs in the field.
Was that a result of a beleaguered, at one stage hospitalised, captain’s tired mind?
“I would like to think not,” Root says.
“You pride yourself on being able to manage those moments in the game, whether that is from a fitness element.
“I am a different player now to what I was four years ago or eight years ago and beyond.
“You look at elements of when I played there previously but the landscape is completely different now.
“Being able to draw on things more recently and experiences that have served me well in the last couple of years is what is going to bring the best out of me in the next couple of months.”
Joe Root. Century. Australia.
A weakening Typhoon Fung-wong has departed the Philippines after killing at least two people, displacing 1.4 million, and destroying homes and roads across the country’s most populous island.
Rescue workers kicked off recovery efforts on Monday morning across the island of Luzon, home to some 64 million people, as the government lifted all travel restrictions.
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Crews wielding power tools, saws and heavy machinery began tackling wreckage, while thousands of Philippine Coast Guard, police and military personnel assumed posts to aid evacuees and assist in rescue operations.
In the eastern coastal town of Dipaculao, where power was still out, footage shared by the local fire agency showed crews using axes to hack through enormous piles of debris – including felled trees and entire metal roofs – as they cleared a roadway.
“We’re seeing many damaged houses and some of our main roads were not passable due to landslides,” rescue worker Geofry Parrocha told the AFP news agency from Dipaculao.
“We couldn’t mobilise last night because the rain was heavy and the volume of water was high,” he said.
The typhoon – which packed winds of 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour) and gusts up to 230km/h (143mph) – made landfall on Aurora province on Sunday evening, unleashing heavy rains and knocking out power to thousands of people.
Even as the storm weakened while moving northwest over the South China Sea, a deluge of up to 200mm (8in) of rain was slated to lash the provinces of La Union, Pangasinan, Benguet and Zambales through Monday, weather bureau PAGASA said.
The bureau also warned of gale-force winds in coastal and upland areas.
The Taipei Times reported that Taiwan’s weather administration planned to issue warnings to residents on Monday and Tuesday, with the storm’s centre projected to strike the island by Thursday morning.
Fung-wong arrived mere days after Typhoon Kalmaegi tore through the Philippines’ central provinces and killed at least 224 people. Kalmaegi then struck Vietnam’s central and highland regions, leading to the deaths of at least five people.
In northern Luzon, high waters tore through at least 132 villages, including one where some residents were trapped on their roofs as floodwaters quickly rose. At least 1,000 houses were damaged, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defense said.
Alejandro warned that the typhoon’s ongoing rains still posed danger to the island’s northern residents, including in metropolitan Manila.
“While the typhoon has passed, its rains still pose a danger in certain areas” in northern Luzon, including in metropolitan Manila,” Alejandro said. “We’ll undertake today rescue, relief and disaster-response operations.”
Nearly 320,000 people remain in evacuation shelters.
Flash flooding in the eastern province of Catanduanes killed at least one person, while another died in eastern Samar province when her house collapsed, officials said.
In Samar province’s Catbalogan City, rescuer Juniel Tagarino told AFP the body of a 64-year-old woman – who was thought to be in the midst of evacuating – had been pulled out from under debris and trees.
“The wind was so strong and the rain was heavy,” Tagarino said. “According to her family members, she might have forgotten something and went back inside her house.”
At least two more people were reported injured.
Major flooding was also reported in southern Luzon’s Bicol region. In Guinobatan, a town of about 80,000 in Bicol’s Albay province, videos showed streets transformed into raging torrents of water.
Authorities announced that schools and most government offices would be closed on Monday and Tuesday. More than 325 domestic and 61 international flights were cancelled over the weekend and into Monday, and more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers were stranded in ports after the coastguard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had declared a state of emergency on Thursday due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected damage from Fung-wong, which was also called Uwan in the Philippines.
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
