Bestival death: actor tells court daughter's boyfriend left her to die
An actor has accused his daughter’s boyfriend of leaving her to die and then filming her lifeless body after they took drugs at a music festival.
John Michie, who has starred in Holby City and Coronation Street, told a jury he could not understand why Ceon Broughton did not find help for his daughter, Louella Fletcher-Michie.
“If I was in Ceon’s situation, I would have taken another human being – let alone another human being who I was supposed to be in love with – to a medical tent to save her life,” he said. “You would do anything to save the life of another human being in the obviously distressed state she was in.”
Appearing in the witness box at Winchester crown court, Michie said he had at first defended Broughton following his daughter’s death at Bestival in Dorset.
“However, I didn’t realise … 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 died,” he told the court.
“I think Louella loved Ceon. I’m not sure he loved her. I don’t know how you can say you loved someone who you left to die in front of you.”
Broughton, 29, a musician from Enfield, north London, is alleged to have given Fletcher-Michie the drug 2C-P at the festival in September 2017, causing her to die an hour before her 25th birthday.
He denies manslaughter and supplying the drug to Fletcher-Michie. The prosecution has claimed Broughton failed to get help because he was given a suspended prison sentence a month earlier and feared the consequences.
As he took the stand, Michie stared at Broughton. At one point during his evidence, he began to sob, but said he could carry on.
He described how on the night of his daughter’s death, the family received a phone call from Broughton. He said he could hear his daughter in the background sounding distressed. “I could hear her saying things like ‘I hate you, I don’t trust you’ – obviously referring to Ceon,” the actor said.
Michie said Broughton’s voice sounded “watery”, adding: “He didn’t seem concerned. Any normal person would be concerned.” He said he heard later Broughton described his daughter as a “drama queen”, which “wasn’t very helpful”.
Fletcher-Michie’s mother, Carol Fletcher-Michie, also broke down as she described the phone call with Broughton. “[Louella] was like a wild animal in the background. I couldn’t recognise it was her,” she said.
“She was screeching. I have never heard anybody like that. That was the last time I heard her voice. How someone could be next to her and not get help I don’t know.”
She said Broughton told her: “Don’t worry I’ll look after her.” But she said his voice was “a bit wavy”. She added: “He was saying: ‘Don’t worry, we can see things other people can’t see.’”
Fletcher-Michie’s sister, Daisy Fletcher-Michie, told the court that during the phone call, she urged Broughton to take her to the medical tent.
“I don’t think he was getting the severity of the situation, I was freaking out,” she said. “I so wanted to believe that Ceon tried everything he could … That was not the case, now I’ve heard the truth; he did nothing to help her and he put himself first.”
Their brother, Sam Fletcher-Michie, claimed Broughton told him what Louella had taken and said he had “bumped it up a bit”. He said: “I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I just said: ‘Please get her to the medical tent.’
“At the time I thought he may have meant a bigger dose or something else alongside it when he said ‘bumped it up’. I tried to stay in contact with Ceon. I think I spoke to Louella for a moment on the phone, but it was just a slur of words.”
He said his sister was a “light user” of drugs. “She went to a lot of festivals and I went with her a lot. Sometimes she didn’t take anything and not drink, but sometimes she would take a pill of ecstasy,” Sam Fletcher-Michie added.
Carol Fletcher-Michie told the court she and her husband jumped into their car and drove three hours to Dorset. They struggled to get past security into the festival site. Eventually, she saw Broughton and he told her he had put his coat over Fletcher-Michie. He was then taken away by police.
She said her daughter, the youngest of three children, lived at home and loved dancing and keeping fit. She said she taught voga, a combination of yoga and dance, and travelled to Mexico, Paris, Ibiza and Denmark for work.
“I think she was quite cautious and measured. She didn’t go out every weekend getting off her head. That is not who she was. I don’t think I ever saw her drunk. She had good sense about her to do the right thing,” she said.
Under cross-examination, Carol Fletcher-Michie said she had trusted Broughton. She said the couple had loved the natural world, had climbed mountains together and shared an interest in fairies, pixies and The Lord of the Rings.
The trial continues.