John Michie offered sympathy to the father of his daughter’s killer after trial

Holby City actor John Michie turned to the father of his daughter’s killer and said ‘you have my sympathy’ after today’s verdicts were returned.

Ceon Broughton, 30, was found guilty today of manslaughter and supplying the drugs that killed Michie’s daughter Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, at Bestival in Dorset.

Mr Michie has sat in the public gallery with his wife, Carol, and two children, Sam and Penny, throughout the trial, not far from the defendant’s father, Dave.

As he left the public gallery he approached the defendant’s father to offer his condolences. His wife left the courtroom in tears.

John Michie outside court today after his daughter Louella’s boyfriend was convicted of her manslaughter following her death from a drugs overdose at a music festival

Broughton with his father Dave, who has sat in the court's public gallery during the trial

Broughton with his father Dave, who has sat in the court’s public gallery during the trial

Ceon Broughton (left), 30, had been on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of being responsible for the death of his girlfriend Miss Fletcher-Michie (right)

Ceon Broughton (left), 30, had been on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of being responsible for the death of his girlfriend Miss Fletcher-Michie (right)

An emotional Mr Michie said outside court: ‘Regardless of the outcome of this harrowing trial, there are never going to be any winners. Our life sentence began on what would have been Louella’s 25th birthday. Ceon’s life sentence is knowing he did not help Louella to live.’

Rapper Broughton, who filmed Louella over several hours as her condition deteriorated, showed no emotion when the verdict was delivered but called out to his lawyers ‘text my mum’.

The court heard that, when he was questioned about his girlfriend’s death by police, Broughton tried to shift the blame onto her parents.

Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, was found dead after taking  2CP at the Bestival site in 2017

Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, was found dead after taking 2CP at the Bestival site in 2017

Michie and his wife had dashed to the Bestival site from London when they heard their daughter ‘screeching’ on the phone after she had taken the class A hallucinogenic drug 2-CP.

Broughton, who gave her the lethal ‘bumped up’ dose, insisted she was fine and said she was just being a ‘drama queen’.

But her desperate parents knew their daughter needed urgent help.

Her mother Carol told the court: ‘I couldn’t believe that was her voice and that’s the last time I heard her voice.’

Her father, who has also starred in Coronation Street and Taggart, said: ‘I think Louella loved Ceon. I’m not sure he loved her.

‘I don’t know how you could ever say you loved someone if you left them to die in front of you.’

A clue to Broughton’s motivation in failing to act emerged during the trial.

The convicted drug dealer told a friend he feared he would be ‘bagged’ by police and even tried to stop her family rushing to the festival.

Instead, he filmed her deadly ‘trip’ near the music festival site in the grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset on September 10, 2017.

Her mother and father, Holby City actor John Michie and his wife Carol, are pictured today

Her mother and father, Holby City actor John Michie and his wife Carol, are pictured yesterday

Broughton also apparently took a photograph of Miss Fletcher-Michie, a yoga and dance teacher, after she died – an hour before her 25th birthday.

When questioned by police later, he tried to shift the blame for his failure to act.

He said she had been ‘fine at first’ but then ‘kind of spiralled and it like it worried me then’.

He told police: ‘I called her mum and then she told me to go and get to someone in high vis and that was like a few hours later.

‘That was a few hours later because I was trying to calm her down.

‘She was like wriggling around in the stinging nettles and stuff, that’s why she has cuts and stuff on her hands.’

He continued: ‘Her mum and dad said they were on their way as well, go back to, go back to high vis and see the same guy again.

‘I wanted to just carry her. I would have carried her myself but yeah they told me to go get someone with a high vis.

‘But yeah I would have carried her myself down to the medical tent.

‘Yeah they didn’t really help at all like, didn’t even help at all.’

 

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