Holby City actor tells court his daughter’s boyfriend ‘did not love her’

Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, was given drugs by her on-off boyfriend Ceon Broughton, 29, and died as her parents rushed to help her, it is alleged.

Mr Michie wept in the witness stand at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday as he gave evidence about the day of her death.

Louella took the class A party drug 2-CP at Bestival in Dorset on September 10 2017 and died in woodland an hour before her 25th birthday.

Broughton, of Enfield, north London, denies manslaughter and supplying Louella the drug.

The jury heard how her family were eating Sunday dinner in their north London home when they received a call from Broughton in which Louella could also be heard.

Mr Michie said: “The thing that I most remember was that Louella seemed very distressed. I could hear her in the background shouting things like ‘I hate you, I don’t trust you’, obviously referring to Ceon.”

He added: “I’ve never heard her speak in that way. It almost didn’t sound like her.”

Mr Michie said Broughton’s voice, on loudspeaker, sounded “watery”, “without energy in it” and he didn ot seem “compos mentis”.

“He didn’t seem to be concerned, I thought. Obviously any normal person would be concerned,” he added.

Louella’s worried parents jumped in their car to go to find their daughter at the festival but they struggled to gain entry and persuade security to look for her.

The couple’s daughter was eventually found dead by a security steward in the woodland, 400m from the festival’s hospital tent, at around 1am, after Broughton left her to seek help.

Mr Michie said he thought Louella and Broughton’s relationship was “beautiful to see” and that he had issued a statement in support of Broughton following his initial arrest.

But he said he had not realised “how he had not taken her to get help, how he had seen her in a very, very distressed state and how, I believe, he possibly even filmed her after she has died”.

“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,” Mr Michie told jurors.

The court was previously shown a 50-minute video of Louella in which she shouts at Broughton to “film me”, “call my mum” and “call my brother, call my sister”.

He also took a photo of Louella around the time she died as she lay motionless in undergrowth with her eyes closed, the court heard.

Giving evidence, Louella’s mother, Carol Fletcher-Michie, said she had “trusted” Broughton who had even spent a Christmas with the family.

She said her daughter sounded like a “wild animal” and was “screeching” in the call received from Broughton.

“I couldn’t believe that was her voice and that’s the last time I heard her voice,” she told the court.

An emotional Ms Fletcher-Michie said her daughter loved dancing and taught Voga – a combination of yoga and dance – at festivals and retreats around the world.

She had an “open relationship” with her daughter and had discussed the need to be “careful” around drugs.

Ms Fletcher-Michie said she believed Louella loved Broughton “more than anyone she had before”.

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.

Sam, who admitted taking drugs with Louella before, said he could not remember if he had asked Broughton whether his sister had taken 2-CP or 2-CB, but Broughton had replied: “Yes, but I bumped it up a bit”.

He said this could have meant a “bigger dose” or “maybe something else alongside” the drug.

A tearful Daisy said she “so wanted to believe that Ceon had done everything he could” to help her sister, but claimed he “did nothing to help her and put himself first”.

She added: “If that was me and my boyfriend there is no way he wouldn’t have saved me.”

The trial continues.