Daily Mail

Our family is broken

Anguish of Holby star as rapper gets just eight-and-a-half years’ jail over daughter’s death from drugs at festival

- By Josh White

THE grieving family of Louella Fletcher-Michie said they were ‘broken’ as her drug-dealer boyfriend was jailed yesterday.

Her father John Michie, 62, reduced jurors to tears as he revealed the ‘gut-wrenching pain’ of losing his youngest child.

The Holby City actor said he suffered the trauma of reliving the ‘horrible truth’ of his 24-year- old daughter’s ‘lonely death’ every night.

‘I wake up every morning to face life starting again without Louella, our daughter, our sister, our friend – our family now broken,’ he said.

‘I go to bed every night with the trauma of the image of Louella, crying out to her mum and dad, her brother and sister to help her, but there was only ever one person who could have helped.’

His comments came as callous Ceon Broughton – who filmed Miss FletcherMi­chie’s drawn- out death from a socalled party drug – was jailed for eightand-a-half years. But the 30-year- old could be freed in four years after being convicted of manslaught­er.

Broughton deliberate­ly gave his lover an overdose of Class A hallucinog­en 2C-P at a music festival in 2017. Shockingly, the musician then filmed yoga teacher Miss Fletcher-Michie’s death while laughing and giving ‘shout-outs’ to his rap group.

On Thursday he was found guilty of committing ‘shocking and despicable negligence’ in failing to get help for Miss Fletcher-Michie.

It was then revealed he had a track record of giving women large drugs doses and filming the results, as well as a ‘morbid’ interest in images of death.

At Winchester Crown Court, Broughton sat emotionles­s with his head bowed as Mr Justice Goose sent him to prison. Mr Michie and his wife Carol, 68, and their eldest daughter Daisy, 29, sat a short distance away holding hands.

Reading a statement, Mr Michie said: ‘Ask any one of the hundreds of people of all creeds and colours from every section of society who were at Louella’s funeral and they will tell you what a happy and inclusive family we were – a family who welcomed all Louella’s friends into our home with open arms.’

Describing his daughter, he said: ‘She was wise beyond her years and trusting – perhaps too trusting. Losing her has made me want to move away from our home, to stop having to pass her room, due to the gut-wrenching pain which those who have lost a child or loved one will understand.’

Daisy said she had post-traumatic stress disorder, adding: ‘Every single day I try to understand why Ceon didn’t help Louella. Why didn’t he? What was he doing all that time? I constantly question all this but I know I’ll never have the answers.’ Her mother added: ‘Our hearts have been ripped out, stamped on and then put back in our bodies again.’

Sentencing Broughton, Mr Justice Goose said Miss Fletcher- Michie was ‘a young, free-spirited woman, with everything to live for’. He added: ‘I am satisfied that you either increased the dose or mixed the drug with something else.

‘I have come to the clear conclusion your only concern was for yourself. You owed her a duty of care to do everything to help. The evidence proves that if you had taken Louella to medics when she was seriously unwell, her life would have been saved.’

Stephen Kamlish QC, for Broughton, read a statement in which the killer said sorry for the first time. It said: ‘Sorry I didn’t do more to save Louella, sorry for the suffering I caused to everyone who loved Louella. I want to make things right for her.’ Broughton of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of supplying Miss FletcherMi­chie with 2C-P and of gross negligence manslaught­er.

He previously pleaded guilty to two other charges of supplying the same drug to Miss FletcherMi­chie and a friend at Glastonbur­y festival in June 2017.

And he was in breach of a suspended prison sentence for two charges of possessing a lock knife and a Stanley knife blade.

 ??  ?? Grief: John Michie with Louella
Grief: John Michie with Louella

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