Bestival worker reveals how he found Holby City star John Michie’s daughter

A festival worker today told a court how he used a GPS location service on Holby City star John Michie’s phone in a bid to find his dying daughter.

Security worker Craig Welsh used a Google maps pin on the iPhone to find 24-year-old Louella Fletcher-Michie but by the time he got there she had died of a drug overdose. 

Jurors heard he found her ‘curled up’ and covered in a coat, looking like she had ‘laid down for a sleep’ among trees at the edge of the Bestival site. 

Unable to save her, he identified her by a photo on the 62-year-old actor’s phone. 

It also emerged today how event controller Judy Beck told security staff not to let Louella’s parents onto the site, instead asking them to make calls in an effort to find her themselves. 

Mr Michie and his wife Carol had arrived at the site in Lulworth, Dorset, after travelling 130 miles from north London to find their daughter, telling staff she was having a ‘bad trip’.   

When Mr Welsh was shown Louella and her rapper boyfriend Ceon Broughton’s last known location on her father’s phone, he volunteered to find her. 

By the time Mr Welsh reached her body it was too late, Winchester Crown Court heard. 

Her lips had turned blue and her arms were crossed across her body, ‘like she was cold’. 

Paramedics told the court today Louella could have broken her neck after they found her lying in an ‘odd position’ with her head resting on branches. 

Broughton, from Enfield, London, denies manslaughter and supplying class A drugs. 

After Mr Welsh had finished giving evidence, Louella’s mother Carol, 68, who has been watching from the public gallery, thanked him outside the courtroom for finding her daughter.  

Mr Michie and his wife went to two different entrances at the Bestival site in a desperate bid to get in and find their daughter, the court heard today.

The former Taggart and Coronation Street star (pictured leaving court with his wife today), 62, stared at Ceon Broughton as he recalled the night his daughter died after overdosing on drugs

The court heard Louella’s ex-boyfriend, Ceon Broughton, pictured with Louella above,  gave her a ‘bumped up’ dose of the class A substance and ‘failed to act’ for six hours

Mr Michie, who has starred in Coronation Street, Taggart and Holby City, gave evidence at Winchester Crown Court. He is pictured here with his daughter Louella on the beach in Spain ‘after yet another ankle sprain’, in August 2017, just days before she died 

When they were able to show Mr Welsh a Google Maps pin with the last location of Broughton, 29, and their daughter, he offered to take the phone and find it. 

Louella could be seen shouting loudly, repeating incoherent sentences and even hitting herself in a series of clips

He told the court: ‘Mr Michie had his mobile phone in his hand. He showed me a Google pin drop. Both parents were distressed. 

‘He wanted to gain access to the site to go searching for his daughter.  

‘I had been at the festival site since the build up before the stages were erected and I had seen the whole site. 

‘I changed his settings on his phone to a satellite view so I could identify better the area where this was and I believed it was further than where he was saying. 

‘He wanted access to the site to go looking and I contacted the event controller and explained, but it was refused. 

‘Because I suggested I knew where it was, I said if he was happy I would take his phone and go to the location. He gave me the phone. 

‘Me and my colleague Ben Ellison went into a forest area to locate the person through the GPS. It was very, very dark. 

Craig Welsh outside Winchester Crown Court today

‘We were shouting for Louella and Ceon. We got to the location but we found nothing. Me and Ben carried on further to try and get to where Ceon was at Stacey’s bar. 

‘I heard my colleague shout. 

‘At that point, I turned around and notice a female’s body on the floor. 

‘She was laid facing up. It was as if she was curled up. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and to one side. 

‘From what I can recall, she was wearing a hoodie and a jacket over the top of her. 

‘Her face was greyish, with blue lips. I noticed she was not breathing. Her eyes were open. 

‘I checked for a pulse and I got none. She was cold. I found a photograph on [Mr Michie’s] phone to identify the girl.’ 

When asked by Stephen Kamlish QC, representing Broughton, he agreed that Louella looked like she had ‘laid down for a sleep’. 

The on-off couple, pictured here in 2016. The court has heard Broughton gave Louella a ‘bumped up’ dose of 2C-P and even filmed her after she died

Louella’s sister Daisy Fletcher-Michie and her brother Sam Fletcher-Michie also told the court how they had ‘begged’ Broughton on the phone to take Louella to a medical tent. Pictured from left: Daisy, Louella, Sam and their mother Carol

Mr Michie said his daughter Louella loved Broughton (pictured together) – but it cannot have been reciprocated as he left her to die 

Mr Welsh said he then ran to get help, adding: ‘There was a light just a couple of hundred yards away. 

‘I didn’t know where I was on the festival site when I got there. I spoke to another member of security staff and went back to her, it took about a minute to get back.’ 

Fellow security worker Aiden Lawrence said Broughton had been ‘erratic’ when he went to find help. 

Mr Lawrence said: ‘He kept wanting to run off, he was very erratic. 

Louella Fletcher-Michie was found dead after taking party drug 2CP at the Bestival site

‘When my colleague came out the woods, I was told Louella was really unwell. I went and tried to look for signs of life. She was just staring straight forward. 

‘She was laid very still, with her arms crossed across her body, almost like she was cold. 

‘There was a bramble bush nearby and there were small scratches on her hands from the bush.’ 

Paramedic Graham Burnett today told jurors he and colleague Justin Williams ran up a hill to help the 24-year-old, through bramble bushes and over logs. 

When they got there, Mr Burnett said they found Louella lying on her side, with a whistle and glow sticks around her neck and her head resting on branches. 

Giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Burnett said: ‘We got our bags out and got up the hill as quickly as we could. 

‘It was a challenging route, we were climbing over logs and through bramble bushes. I myself fell over. 

‘[Louella] was lifeless, with no pulse and she was not breathing. Rigor mortis had set in in her lower limbs. 

‘She was laid on her left side, facing down the hill. There were lots of branches her head was resting on. We were not entirely sure there wasn’t a broken neck involved. 

‘It was a bit of an odd position. She was wearing black trousers with flashy stripes. She had a whistle around her neck and glow sticks. 

‘She was extensively covered in what I would call light abrasions where it looked like she had been in the brambles which would fit with where she was found.’ 

In statement read to the court, Mr Williams added: ‘She had a lot of scratches, which I initially thought were henna tattoos. Her head was resting on a log.’ 

Louella and Ceon (bottom right together) at a family dinner with, clockwise from left: Her actor father John, his wife Carol, brother Sam, sister Daisy and her boyfriend Jamie Jamieson

Louella’s father John Michie told the court today: ‘I think Louella loved Ceon, but I’m not sure he loved her. I don’t know how you can say love someone who you left to die in front of you’

Mr Michie posted this picture in April 2014 with the caption, ‘Marathon training with my daughter’

Mr Michie posted this picture of himself with Louella as a baby on social media one month after she died 

The court has heard how former Taggart and Coronation Street star Mr Michie and his wife, drove from their home to Bestival after hearing Louella ‘screech’ down the phone ‘like a wild animal’. 

Broughton, who has recorded with top rap artists Skepta and Wiley, filmed his girlfriend tripping on the party drug 2C-P, continuing to do so as her condition worsened and after she died, jurors heard. 

The on-site hospital was just 400 metres away from where she was found, but Broughton did not seek help in the six hours he spent with Louella in the woods. 

Prosecutor William Mousley QC said the rapper could have saved her if he had sought medical help, but ‘didn’t want to be arrested’ because he was serving a suspended sentence and would likely be jailed. 

Jurors have been shown harrowing footage of Louella hallucinating wildly and repeatedly calling for her parents, before hitting herself. 

An audio clip revealed Broughton laughed at his girlfriend before she appeared to start eating thorns.  

Live iPhone images, taken by Broughton at 11.25pm, show a lifeless Louella laying on her back with bloodied hands. 

Jurors were today shown another video of Louella, taken on Broughton’s phone just after 7pm in which she is sat down in woodland screaming incoherently. 

The trial continues.