CPS defends decision to drop Nicky Butt’s assault charge but pursue case against Caroline Flack
THE Crown Prosecution Service has defended its decision to drop an assault charge against Manchester United legend Nicky Butt but pursue the case against Caroline Flack.
Former Red Devil Butt, 45, had been accused of an assault on his estranged wife Shelley Barlow last April, but the case was discontinued when prosecutors offered no evidence.
Butt had vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
He said he accidentally damaged her mobile phone and did not know how she had sustained a cut to her hand.
The CPS dropped it after Ms Barlow said she would not take to the witness box – in a total reversal of the tragic case of Flack, 40.
Her boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27, had said he did not support the prosecution against her but they pushed on and even insisted they could not contact each other.
Prosecutors came under fire in the wake of the TV presenter’s death. She took her own life while awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.
But the CPS insisted they were two different cases last night.
It said: “It is not appropriate to compare unconnected cases, as deciding whether the public interest test is met depends on the individual circumstances of each complaint.”
They said no more details could be revealed because they involved private family matters that had not been discussed in open court.
When deciding whether to pursue a case, prosecutors must consider firstly whether there is enough evidence, and secondly whether it is in the public interest to do so.
Former chief crown prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal told The Sun: “On the basis of what I know, the Caroline Flack case was allegedly a deliberate assault using a lamp.
“In the Nicky Butt case, it appears he was claiming it was an accident. In that situation you need the alleged victim to rebut it and she’s not going to be there.
“That’s the difference between them. It’s a straight legal issue. It has absolutely nothing to do with gender or football or anything else.
“In the Flack case you had injuries that were said to be consistent with what was alleged to have happened, as well as body cam evidence from the police officers seeing everything in situ.
“You’ve none of that in the Butt case. All you’ve got is some kind of injury and his estranged wife’s original complaint that she suffered it at his hands.
“The CPS couldn’t proceed because they would have needed her in court to rebut his claims”.
On Wednesday Ms Flack’s family released an unpublished Instagram post written by the presenter in which she maintained that the incident was an accident.
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