CORRIE STAR’S CLASH WITH KILLER
COURT BUST-UP AT GIRL’S DEATH
CORONATION Street star John Michie was caught in a violent courtroom bust-up as his daughter’s boyfriend was found guilty of killing her.
Ceon Broughton smashed up furniture in a waiting room and had to be overpowered by police after grieving actor John branded him “evil”.
CORRIE star John Michie left court in tears after jurors found a rapper guilty of killing his daughter Louella.
After the verdict was announced, it was revealed that he’d had a violent bust-up with Ceon Broughton and branded him “evil”.
Mr Michie had left court after hearing that Broughton’s negligence in letting Louella die from an overdose of the party drug 2C-P was “truly shocking”.
Outside the courthouse, Mr Michie, 62, said: “Regardless of the outcome of this harrowing trial there are never going to be any winners.
“We started our life sentence on what would have been Louella’s 25th birthday. Ceon’s life sentence is knowing he did not help Louella to live.’’
The confrontation took place in a waiting room following the prosecution’s closing speech at 30-year-old Broughton’s manslaughter trial last week.
Witnesses said Broughton “flipped out” and smashed a table before he was overpowered by police. The judge directed the jury at Winchester Crown Court should not be told of the clash in case it prejudiced the trial.
Yesterday, the jury found the grime star guilty of Louella’s manslaughter and supplying her with the Class A drug that killed her at the Bestival music festival in Dorset in September 2017.
The judge Mr Justice Goose will sentence him later today.
Custody
Broughton, who pleaded guilty to supplying 2C-P to Louella and a pal three months earlier at Glastonbury, shouted “Text my mum” from the dock to his lawyers as he was remanded in custody.
Following yesterday’s verdict the dramatic details of last week’s court clash between John and his daughter’s killer can be revealed for the first time.
When the actor – who also starred in Holby City, Casualty and Taggart – walked past Broughton as he sat in the public waiting area, Mr Michie turned to him and said: “You’re evil... evil.’’
Louella’s sister Daisy, 29, then walked up to the musician and said: “Why won’t you say sorry Ceon? We just want you to say sorry.’’ Eyewitnesses said Broughton let out an “agonising roar”, picked up a table and hurled it 30ft into the opposite wall – smashing it to pieces.
As Daisy and her dad hurried from the waiting area, the rapper jumped up screaming, stormed into an ante-room outside another court and lashed out at a water fountain.
Two detectives involved in the trial raced after him. A witness said: “One of them shouted: ‘Let’s nick him’. They went into the ante-room and you could hear Broughton being restrained.
“You could hear the sound of flesh on flesh. Thirty seconds later one of the cops came out with Broughton in a double arm lock. He was still raging saying: ‘Get the f*** off me’. The cop said Broughton had been hitting himself. He just flipped out – totally freaked out.
“He was trying to struggle free but his arms were locked behind his back.’’
Broughton’s lawyer Stephen Kamlish QC sat with his arm round him for 10 minutes soothing him and urging him to return to court.
The jury heard the rapper – who had been dating Louella for a year – gave her a “bumped-up” dose of 2C-P after the pair disappeared to a wood together on the edge of the festival site when storms halted the performances on stage.
Instead of fetching help from the hospital tent just 400 yards away as she fell critically ill, he filmed her bad trip with his mobile phone for up to six hours. The footage of her life draining away due to exhaustion from hours of hallucinogenic ranting was so disturbing one juror asked to be discharged after viewing it.
Louella – a yoga teacher, dancer and model – became the first person in the world to die from an overdose of 2C-P just an hour before her 25th birthday.
Blood tests showed she had also taken ketamine and ecstasy. Broughton took three images of her dead body before finally going to alert festival security.
The court heard he did not help her because at the time he was subject to a 24week suspended jail sentence imposed for two charges of possessing a lock knife the month before. He was terrified he would be locked up if he was caught breaking the law again. He claimed Louella had got the drugs herself while he was tucking into a festival toastie and thought she would recover.
John and wife Carol, 68, dashed 130 miles from their north London home to Bestival after overhearing their daughter screeching “like a wild animal” during a phone call from the scene. But by the time they arrived she was dead.
Despite his drug peddling the grime star known as CEONRPG – who has recorded with Skepta and Wiley – had been welcomed into the Michies’ home at Christmas because Louella was so smitten with him.
But they did not know he had an interest in “death images” and had fed two other girls drugs, then filmed them in the weeks before Louella’s fatal trip.