Ceon Broughton sentenced for Bestival manslaughter

Ceon Broughton has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half year in prison, after being found guilty of the manslaughter of Louella Fletcher-Michie at Bestival in 2017 in a unanimous verdict yesterday at Winchester Crown Court.

Broughton supplied Fletcher-Michie, the daughter of Holby City actor John Michie, with a Class A party drug called 2C-P which contributed to the overdose she died from.

The court heard Broughton “bumped up” Fletcher-Michie’s dose when the pair entered woodland near the Bestival site to take the potent psychedelic drug on the eve of her 25th birthday.

The court also heard he filmed her while she screamed for him to get help, which he refused to do as her condition deteriorated over fears of self-preservation because of a suspended jail sentence he was serving at the time. He also called her a “drama queen”.

The suspended sentence he was serving was for pleading guilty to supplying 2C-P to Fletcher-Michie at Glastonbury Festival in 2017.

Judge Justice Goose said during his sentencing of Broughton: "I have come to the clear conclusion you were only concerned for yourself.

"You had created an obviously dangerous situation, you were not concerned until it was too late.

"Whilst you were doing little to help Louella you were sending messages to a friend asking him to say that Louella had obtained the drugs from an unknown person. You were more concerned to create defence."

John Michie said in a victim statement: "I wake up every morning to face life starting again without Louella, our daughter, our sister, our friend, our family now broken.

"And for what? It makes no sense - our beautiful Louella should still be with us on any measure of humanity.

"No more yoga with my daughter, no more running around the outside of the Arsenal stadium with my daughter.

"Her life cruelly cut short. Our lives forever diminished. She was wise beyond her years and trusting, too trusting it seems."

Fletcher-Michie’s mother Carol Fletcher said: "On the outside we all look much the same as we did before, but inside our hearts and souls have been ripped out, trampled on and stuffed back in.

"Like losing a limb, waking up every day to face this new reality, having to learn to live with this for the rest of our lives.

"There are no winners. We don't think Ceon is evil. He was stupid, massively selfish and he lied. My hope is that he has learned that truth is all we have ever really got."

Sister Daisy Fletch-Michie said: "Every single day I try to understand why Ceon didn't help Louella, the hours that passed with her getting progressively worse, even having spoken to him on the phone myself, and begging him to get her to a medical tent. Why didn't he?"

Stephen Kamlish QC read a statement from Broughton, who he represented at trial, saying: "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."

[Via: BBC]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter

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