Michie tells of family’s ‘life sentence’ after daughter’s festival death
● Taggart actor John Michie says family already left with ‘life sentence’
John Michie speaks outside Winchester Crown Court yesterday after a rap musician was convicted of the manslaughter of the Scottish TV actor’s daughter. Louella Fletcher-michie died in September 2017 at the Bestival music festival after taking the drug 2-CP supplied by boyfriend Ceon Broughton.
Taggart actor John Michie has spoken of his family’s “life sentence” as the rapper boyfriend of his daughter was convicted of her manslaughter.
Ceon Broughton, from Enfield in north London, was yesterday found guilty of being responsible for the death of Louella Fletcher-michie after he “bumped up” her dose of a so-called party drug then filmed her as she suffered an extreme reaction.
The 30-year-old was also found guilty at Winchester Crown Court of supplying Miss Fletcher-michie with the drug 2-CP before her death at the Bestival music festival in September 2017.
Speaking outside court, Mr Michie – who is currently in Holby City and grew up in Edinburgh – said: “Regardless of the outcome of this harrowing trial, there were never going to be any winners.
“We began our life sentence on what would have been Louella’s 25th birthday, Ceon’s life sentence is knowing he didn’t help Louella to live.”
Broughton sat down with his hands held together in front of
his face as the judge, Mr Justice Goose, said he intended to sentence him today. The defendant then asked his lawyer to text his mother.
Miss Fletcher-michie, a yoga and dance teacher, took the
hallucinogenic drug at Bestival in Dorset on 10 September 2017 and died in woodland an hour before her 25th birthday.
It can now be reported that towards the end of the trial, Mr Michie confronted the defendant in a court waiting area and called him evil.
Miss Fletcher-michie’s sister Daisy also told him: “All we wanted from you was an apology.” Broughton was seen to lose his temper and damaged a table and a water cooler. During his trial, the prosecution said Broughton failed to take “reasonable” steps to seek medical help for Miss Fletcher-michie.
The jury was shown videos taken by the defendant as her condition worsened – and possibly after she had died.
In clips shown to the court, Miss Fletcher-michie repeatedly shouts at Broughton to telephone her mother, Carol Fletcher-michie, but he tells her to “put your phone away”.
Her mother eventually contacted Broughton at 6:48pm and heard her daughter “screeching” before she rushed with her husband to the festival site in a bid to find her. Prosecutor William Mousley claimed Broughton did not get help because he was handed a suspended jail term one month earlier and feared the consequences. The suspended sentence was for two charges of possessing a knife.
A post-mortem examination found “2-CP toxicity” and traces of ketamine and MDMA in Miss Fletcher-michie’s system.