Bestival: Ceon Broughton will not face retrial over Louella Fletcher-Michie drug death

A man who filmed his girlfriend dying after she took a drugs at a festival will not face a retrial after his manslaughter conviction was overturned.

Louella Fletcher-Michie died on the eve of her 25th birthday with traces of 2C-P, MDMA and ketamine in her body at Bestival in September 2017. 

Ceon Broughton, 31, was handed an eight-and-a-half year sentence in March 2019 after a court heard he supplied her with the 2C-P and then failed to get medical help as she died.

The musician from Enfield challenged his manslaughter conviction at the Court of Appeal in June, and the previous ruling was quashed in August by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Murray.

The Crown Prosecution Service has said this week it will not be taking the matter further.

Last week, Ms Fletcher-Michie’s father, the Holby City and Coronation Street actor John Michie posted a picture of his daughter on Instagram, captioned: “Truth stands / When The Law falls / Love is eternal.”

The prosecution had alleged that Broughton did not seek help for his girlfriend despite being 400m from the Dorset festival’s medical tent because he feared being arrested for breaching a suspended prison sentence handed down for possession of bladed articles.

The jury was told that he filmed his girlfriend’s “gradual demise”, which lasted several hours, as she screamed and collapsed - and that when a friend told him to call an ambulance, Mr Broughton replied: “I can’t get bagged [arrested].”

When her condition worsened, he contacted her family and relatives, but festival officials went to an area called the Ambient Forest rather than the woods.

In his closing statement, Broughton’s lawyer Stephen Kamlish QC said his actions were explained by the fact that he thought his girlfriend was just having a bad trip, not dying. The act of filming his girlfriend, Mr Kamlish said, showed that Broughton didn’t "realise the seriousness” or “mean for Louella either to suffer or die”.

Mr Kamlish said that as Broughton filmed Louella he told her “When this is all over, you will want to show it to your mum”, adding: “That is how ironic and tragic this case is."

While Broughton did not give evidence, a statement read during his sentencing hearing said: “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.”

As they quashed the manslaughter conviction, Court of Appeal judges said he had “made attempts to get assistance”, including by telling a friend to “get the medics” and sending him a pin on Google Maps.

The ruling said: “It is not plausible to suppose that [Broughton] was acting in a grossly negligent way whilst actively seeking help for Louella at that time.”

For the conviction to be safe, judges said, the jury would have had to be sure that “at the time when Louella’s condition was such that there was a serious and obvious risk of death, the appellant was grossly negligent in failing to obtain medical assistance and that such assistance would have saved her life”.