I believe my daughter Angel Lynn was pushed out of that van at 60mph… I pray she’ll speak again and tell world the truth
HARROWING CCTV footage of 19-year-old Angel Lynn being grabbed from behind and bundled into a van by her boyfriend shocked the nation.
Moments later she fell headfirst from the van, which by then was travelling at 60mph, on to a dual carriageway and suffered catastrophic brain injuries.
She was left paralysed and unable to walk, talk or feed herself.
Her parents Nikki, 48, and Patrick, 53, were told their daughter would not survive that attack in September 2020.
But Angel, now 22, has not only defied medics by pulling through, she has gone on to exceed all expectations in her recovery.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, devoted mum Nikki, from Lough-borough, Leicestershire, reveals that Angel has now been able to stand for the first time since the attack.
And she says: “She is communicating more and more.
“I know it won’t change things but I’m hoping one day she will speak and tell me what happened.”
Angel’s then-boyfriend Chay Bowskill, 20, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice.
Last May Court of Appeal judges increased his sentence to 12 years after they concluded his original term for the kidnap was not long enough.
During his trial at Leicester Crown Court, the prosecution failed to prove Angel was thrown or pushed out of the vehicle — driven by Bowskill’s friend Rocco Sansome, 20.
Bowskill claimed Angel jumped or fell out accidentally on to the road — something that mum-of-six Nikki refuses to accept.
No forgiveness
She says: “I do think she was pushed because of the injuries she suffered, the force with which she hit the ground.”
Nikki says her daughter’s head “bounced like a football” and she rolled for nearly 50 metres.
Bowskill and Sansome — who was also found guilty of kidnap and is now out of prison after being sentenced to 21 months — then drove off, leaving Angel for dead on the A6 near Loughborough.
Nikki says: “I can’t forgive Chay for what he’s done. He couldn’t acknowledge he was in the wrong. He’s not getting any forgiveness from me.”
She adds: “Angel was a driver herself, and they were going at 60mph. I don’t think that my daughter would have jumped into the middle of a dual carriageway into oncoming traffic in the next lane.
“She would have known the consequences. She had never been suicidal.
“He tried to make out in court she was a bad person. One hundred per cent she wasn’t suicidal.
“So I’m just not having that at all. If she wanted out of that van I think she would have waited a little bit further until the roundabout, where they would have actually slowed down.
“Angel knows that if she so much as broke down in her car, I would be in a total panic.
“She knows that if anything happens to her or one of our other kids, it would kill us if we were to lose one of them.
“So I’m just not having it that she jumped. What he says is nonsense.”
Nikki and Patrick, who run a cleaning business, are also parents to Reannon, 31, Lewis, 29, Lester, 27, Kelsie, 12, and ten-year-old Jimmy.
Tonight they open up about their daughter’s ordeal in a Channel 4 documentary — The Kidnap Of Angel Lynn.
They sought Angel’s blessing before agreeing to take part in the film, which details her fight for survival.
The outgoing youngster had a good life, attending college and working part-time as a cleaner when she met Bowskill through a mutual friend around a year before the incident.
Nikki says: “She had her own car, a job and friends before she met him. Her dream was to become a forensic scientist and work for the police.
“She loved her life. Then it just changed. She stopped going to college. She didn’t see her friends or hang out with her brothers and sisters. She was always with him.”
Neither Nikki nor Patrick — known as Paddy — liked their daughter’s boyfriend when they met him.
Nikki admits: “I just knew he was a bad ’un.”
Angel had always taken pride in her appearance, but Nikki says all that stopped when she got together with Bowskill.
“She was naturally beautiful and wasn’t short of attention,” she recalls. “She had a lovely figure.
“She would watch video after video of hair and make-up tutorials on YouTube when she was younger.” But Nikki had no idea that her daughter was becoming a victim of coercive control.
She says: “I should have known when she didn’t put her eyelashes on.
“She would scrape her hair back in a bun, which she would only ever do for work.”
The documentary uses text messages, social media posts, photos and phone calls between Angel and her abusive boyfriend — which she hid from her family and friends.
During their relationship Bowskill served time in prison for burglary but he would demand that Angel was at home every night at 6pm so he could call her on the landline.
After his release the relationship continued, but when he threw her against a wall she made the brave decision to leave him.
She was getting her life back on track when Bowskill kidnapped her in the village of Rothley, near Leicester, on September 17, 2020 following an argument.
CCTV shows the moment Bowskill grabs Angel in a bear hug and carries her across the road to the silver Transit van.
Nikki says Bowskill admitted in court that the last thing he said to Angel before she plunged from the van was: “I f***ing hate you, bitch.”
She says: “I felt like getting up and strangling him, I really did. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the things he had done and said to her. It’s disgusting.”
After the attack Bowskill and his accomplice Sansome sped away, leaving Angel lying on the road.
She was given urgent medical attention by an off-duty doctor who was driving past, and was airlifted to hospital.
Angel’s fight for survival has astonished doctors at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, where she was given the last rites three times.
Nikki says: “They said, ‘There’s not much we can do for her’. I’d beg her to try. I’d say, ‘Don’t leave me’.”
Angel eventually came out of her coma and was later transferred to a rehabilitation unit, the name of which cannot be disclosed, for her safety.
Nikki says: “They really are doing wonders with Angel.”
Following the incident, Angel’s cousin, Fahren Davis, decided to set up a Go FundMe page to help aid her recovery.
Kind strangers and members of her community have donated just short of £200,000, which is being used to adapt the family home, as they have received no help from the council.
Nikki says: “It has been a difficult time for everyone financially, so for them to think of Angel is heartwarming.
“There are nice people out there.”
Angel is now progressing so well that she will soon be able to move from the unit back in with her family, once the building work is completed.
Her sister Reannon plans to move from Newcastle to nearby, so she can be her carer, along with her mum.
Nikki says: “When Angel went into the rehab unit I couldn’t see any future with her getting better.
“But she has improved so much it’s unbelievable. Angel is definitely in there.
“I will write a question on her iPad and she will write her answer. I asked her what car she wanted and she wrote ‘grey Audi’.
“She can wave, give a thumbs up and a thumbs down, and give us high fives.”
Nikki has taken a step back from her role in the family business to care for her daughter.
She visits her every day at the unit and has even taken out shopping for clothes.
Nikki says: “I asked her where she wanted to go and she was pointing like mad at Calvin Klein. She bought leggings, T-shirts, socks and handbags.
“She spent a fortune, she knew exactly what she wanted.”
Nikki also arranges for Angel to have her hair and nails done because she knows how much it means to her, and adds: “She would do the same for me.”
Strong girl
Nikki says she wanted to share Angel’s story to help raise awareness of coercive control among young people and to inspire others in a similar situation.
She says: “I got a message from someone the other week.
“Her son had been in an accident and was in pretty much the same situation as Angel was.
“The doctors said what they said about Angel — that he won’t survive, he won’t be able to do anything.
“Angel is doing everything they said she wouldn’t.
“So I messaged her back and sent a photo of Angel, and I wrote, ‘Don’t give up hope. This is my daughter now’.
“I think it’s given her a bit of hope that he could make progress.
“It’s about the person it happened to. She’s a really strong girl. She is determined.
“She was always like that from a kid. If she wanted to do something, she’d find a way to make it happen.
“We will get there. I will do everything we can. I won’t stop until the day I die.”
- The Kidnap Of Angel Lynn airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm. To donate to Angel’s GoFundMe page, see gofundme.com/f/support-angel-lynns-recovery.