‘How can you say you love somebody – then leave them to die?’
Emotional Holby City star comes face to face with drug-death daughter’s boyfriend at court
HOLBY City actor John Michie asked his daughter’s boyfriend how he could leave her ‘to die in front of you’ yesterday.
Mr Michie said it was a ‘mistake’ to trust 29-year-old Ceon Broughton, who he once thought was a ‘good person’.
In a dramatic courtroom confrontation, he said the rapper could have saved 24-year-old Louella Fletcher-Michie’s life by calling for help.
Mr Michie, who plays Guy Self in the BBC medical drama, said: ‘I don’t know how you could you say you love someone who you left to die in front of you.’
He added: ‘I think Louella loved Ceon, but I’m not sure he loved her. If I was in Ceon’s situation, I would have taken another human being – let alone my girlfriend who I was supposed to love – to a medical tent to save her life.’
Winchester Crown Court heard that Mr Michie, 62, was shocked to discover Broughton allegedly failed to call for help after Louella took a fatal drug dose at a music festival, even filming her after she died.
Glaring at the defendant across the courtroom, Mr Michie
‘The last time I heard her voice’
added: ‘I didn’t realise how in the six hours he was with her, he had not taken her to get help ... how he had seen her in a very, very distressed state and how I believe he has even filmed her after she had died.’
When asked about being told of his daughter’s death as he arrived at Bestival in September 2017, Mr Michie slumped, before regaining his composure.
‘I’ve since learnt he described her as a drama queen, which is hurtful,’ he added.
Broughton is accused of giving Louella designer drug 2-CP and of her manslaughter after failing to call for help for six hours because he was scared of being arrested.
Instead of phoning 999, the grime artist stayed hidden in a wooded area, documenting her decline in a disturbing series of videos which continued after death, prosecutors say.
The hospital area was 400metres away but Broughton made no attempt to take her there. The court heard Louella would have survived had Broughton not been ‘thinking only of himself’.
Her parents made a desperate 200km drive to the festival after hearing Ms Fletcher-Michie screeching down the phone like a ‘wild animal’, having overdosed on a cocktail of party drugs. By the time they arrived at the site, she was dead.
Carol Fletcher, 68, wept as she told jurors she ‘couldn’t believe’ it was her daughter on the phone. She said: ‘I only spoke to Ceon, Louella was like a wild animal in the background. I couldn’t believe… that was the last time I heard her voice.
‘I could hear Louella saying “give me my phone’ and “I don’t trust you, I hate you”. I told him to get help and that’s what I assumed he would do. I asked what they had taken and he said “we can see things other people can’t see”.’
Louella’s brother Sam said Broughton told him on the phone, ‘I bumped it up a bit’, referring to the drug dose he had given Louella. He said he thought this could have meant a ‘bigger dose’ or ‘maybe something else alongside’ it.
Broughton has admitted two counts of supplying class A drugs. He denies supplying Louella 2C-P, and her manslaughter. The trial continues.