Angel Lynn's mother says teen 'blocked out' memories of ex-boyfriend
Angel Lynn’s mother says brain-damaged and paralysed teenager has ‘blocked out’ memories of ex-boyfriend kidnapper who bundled her in a van before she fell out and fractured her skull
- Nikki Lynn says Angel has ‘no memories’ of the attack or of her ex Chay Bowskill
Angel Lynn’s mother insists her paralysed and brain-damaged daughter was pushed from a van during a kidnapping by ex-boyfriend and revealed she has ‘blocked out’ memories of the attack and her abusive abductor.
Angel Lynn, then 19, was kidnapped by Chay Bowskill, then 20, in September 2020. He bundled her into a van in Rothley, Leicestershire, and drove away with her.
Angel, now 22, suffered catastrophic brain injuries that almost killed her when she fell out of the moving van head-first at 60mph on the A6 near Loughborough.
Bowskill claimed Angel had fallen or jumped from the van, but her mother Nikki Lynn, 48, told The Sun she believes her daughter was pushed ‘because of the injuries she suffered, the force with which she hit the ground’ – despite Bowskill being cleared of grievous bodily harm.
Nikki yesterday revealed that Angel has ‘no memories’ of the attack or of Bowskill, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for kidnapping, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice.
Angel Lynn has ‘blocked out’ memories of her abusive kidnapper ex-boyfriend, her mother has claimed. She is pictured with her mother, Nikki Lynn
Angel, then 19, was kidnapped by Chay Bowskill , then 20, in September 2020. He bundled her into a van in Rothley, Leicestershire, and drove away with her. CCTV footage shows the moment she was kidnapped
Angel’s family thought she was ‘having some flashbacks’ but know now she does not remember the incident. Angel is pictured before the kidnapping
‘I’ve asked her if she remembers Chay and she puts her thumb down. There may be a lot of blocking it out,’ Nikki told LBC.
She shared how they had thought Angel was ‘having some flashbacks’ but know now she does not remember the incident.
Nikki said: ‘I have asked her if she remembers and she doesn’t. I gave her some options like “was your accident a bike, a van or a car?” And she said a bike.’
Sickening CT scans suggest Angel was left with two fractures – one across the top of her skull and down the left side of her face and another across her forehead and into her eye socket. Another scan showed how her nose, eye socket and cheeks were injured from the fall.
The injuries left her paralysed and unable to eat, walk or talk by herself. But Nikki claims that her daughter has had an ‘unbelievable’ recovery that has seen her ‘improve so much’ and ‘do everything they said she wouldn’t’.
She told LBC how the 22-year-old can ‘write things down’ and ‘choose her own clothes’. Angel is ‘standing with a little bit of support’, moving to a ‘less supported’ wheelchair and, with the help of her medical team, trying to walk again. She has also gone swimming and ‘walks perfect in the pool’.
Nikki said that although Angel ‘gets a bit down sometimes’, she keeps ‘fighting back’ and will soon be able to move from a rehabilitation centre to her family home.
The mother, who when Angel was placed in rehab ‘couldn’t see any future with her getting better’, said that she hopes one day her daughter’s speech improves enough that she can speak about her kidnapping.
‘I know it won’t change things but I’m hoping one day she will speak and tell me what happened,’ Nikki added.
Shocking scans (pictured) have revealed devastating damage to the young woman’s skull after she fell from the van
The scans suggest she was left with two fractures – one across the top of her skull and down the left side of her face and another across her forehead and into her eye socket
Another scan (pictured) showed how Angel’s nose, eye socket and cheeks were injured from the head-first fall
She suffered catastrophic brain injuries that almost killed her when she fell out of the moving van head-first at 60mph on the A6 near Loughborough. Pictured: Angel awake in Hospital in Nottingham
In footage from Channel 4’s The Kidnap of Angel Lynn, consultant neurosurgeon Stuart Smith said it was clear Angel suffered ‘very severe’ injuries during the incident.
Pointing at the huge crack in her skull, he said: ‘This area here is fractured, it’s been split open from the force of the impact.
‘To fracture the skull to that degree takes an incredible degree of force.
‘Her injury was so devastating and so severe, there was a very real chance that Angel wouldn’t survive.’
During the programme, viewers were also shown dozens of abusive texts messages from her controlling ex-boyfriend in which he called her a ‘stupid c***’ ‘b****’, and a ‘divvy little s**g’.
Angel’s ex-boyfriend Chay Bowskill was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm after it became unclear how she had left the van
The bubbly college student from Loughborough (pictured with her mother Nikki) had wanted to become a forensic scientist for the police
Angel’s father Patrick, 53, said Angel had initially denied she was dating Bowskill.
He said: ‘She must’ve been ashamed of him because he wasn’t a good boy. She was my angel. She’s just daddy’s girl.’
Nikki added: ‘He would message all the time. Message, message, message – all the time her phone was lit up.
‘Wherever he went she went with him. At that age you can’t say, ”you can’t do this.” She had her own car, you can’t ground her. I felt helpless.’
In tears, Nikki said the hardest part of learning about how abusive the relationship was ‘knowing that he hurt her’.
Talking about the kidnapping that left her daughter paralysed, she added: ‘They said she was rolling down the road like a football. I think he pushed her out the van.’
Bowskill was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm after it became unclear how Angel had left the van.
Angel Lynn, now 22, suffered catastrophic brain injuries when she fell out of a moving van head-first at 60mph
Chay Bowskill, 20, (pictured), from Syston, Leicestershire, was convicted of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour and perverting the course of justice following a trial at Leicester Crown Court
However, in January 2022, he was handed a seven-and-a-half-year sentence after being found guilty of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.
His sentence was then nearly doubled after senior judges at the Court of Appeal concluded his original term for the kidnap was not long enough and handed him four-and-a-half more years.
Sansome received 21 months. Bowkill’s sentence was later increased to 12 years, although Sansome’s was not changed.
Bowskill, of Syston, Leicestershire, was also convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour and perverting the course of justice.
Source: Read Full Article