Search party sent to wrong place as star’s girl lay dying
Festival staff searching for the dying daughter of Holby City actor John Michie went to the wrong area after a mix-up, a court heard yesterday.
the worried family of louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, urged Bestival organisers to send out a search team as she became increasingly ill after overdosing on party drug 2C-P.
it was wrongly believed she was in the site’s ‘ambient Forest’, when she was in a wooded area outside the grounds, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Miss Fletcher-Michie’s family and her friend ezra Campbell, who was at Bestival on september 10, 2017, tried to pinpoint her exact location as she overdosed outside the site in lulworth Castle, Dorset.
the court heard accused killer Ceon Broughton, 29, had texted Mr Campbell saying ‘forest’, which was relayed to festival staff.
Bestival’s ‘happiness manager’ Olivia Moedt told jurors that Mr Michie’s wife, former dancer Carol Fletcher, 68, sounded ‘terrified’ when she phoned. she said: ‘i asked if she had any idea where they might be and she said “the forest”. as there was one only one forest on the site it was thought it was the ambient Forest.’
Gemma thorogood, who helped coordinate the fruitless search, told defence barrister stephen Kamlish, QC: ‘i never thought it was outside the perimeter of the event. We don’t have access out there.’
the prosecution say that Broughton stayed with louella until after she had died but then emerged from woodland on his own at around 11.30pm. security guards said they ‘broke the rules’ to help him look for his girlfriend who he said ‘had overdosed’.
Broughton later sent a text, thought to refer to the workers, saying they didn’t ‘give a f***’.
Former taggart star Mr Michie, 62, who was raised in edinburgh, watched the trial from the public gallery.
His wife dashed from the court before footage was played of her daughter smiling and enjoying the festival in a tent. in the clip, shot by Mr Campbell, Miss FletcherMichie shows off her many festival bands and shouts ‘whee!’ happily.
in another clip, taken a day before her death, Miss FletcherMichie and Broughton walk together and speak about ‘hallucinating’ and ‘getting weird’.
Broughton, of enfield, london, denies manslaughter and supplying a class a drug. the trial continues on Monday.