Rapper to appeal conviction over death of Holby City actor's daughter

A rapper who was jailed for the manslaughter of Holby City actor John Michie’s daughter after she died of a drug overdose at Bestival is mounting an appeal today.

Ceon Broughton, 31, filmed his girlfriend Louella Fletcher-Michie as she pleaded for help after taking the hallucinogenic drug 2-CP at the Dorset festival in September 2017.

His trial heard how Ms Fletcher-Michie had taken a “bumped up” dose of the class A party drug and Broughton filmed with his mobile phone over the course of six hours as she slipped into unconsciousness.

She was found dead in a wooded area at the edge of the festival in the early hours of September 11, which would have been her 25th birthday.

Broughton, from Enfield, who raps under the stage name CEONRPG, was convicted last March of manslaughter by gross negligence after prosecutors said he had failed to get help by not taking his girlfriend to the medical tent just 500m away.

Prosecutor William Mousley QC said Broughton did not get help because he had been handed a suspended jail term a month earlier and feared the consequences.

However defence counsel Stephen Kamlish QC said an expert witness had acknowledged that Miss Fletcher-Michie might not have survived even with medical help.

Broughton claimed he did not want to leave Miss Fletcher-Michie alone during a “bad trip”, and had not realised she was in mortal danger.

In one of the videos shot by Broughton, Miss Fletcher-Michie is heard saying: "My mum and dad, my brother and sister, I love you lot."

Her mother, Carol Fletcher-Michie, said she "dropped everything" and travelled with her husband to the festival site at Lulworth Castle, Dorset, after making contact with Broughton and hearing her daughter in the background.

Broughton was granted leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence in March, and three judges are due to hear the case this morning in a virtual Court of Appeal session.

In a statement for the sentencing hearing, he wrote: “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.”

Trial judge Mr Justice Goose told him: “You were only concerned for yourself. You didn’t want to be arrested, you were more in fear of that than in getting help.”

Mrs Fletcher-Michie said afterwards: "Having to learn to live with this for the rest of our lives, it's thrown everything I believe in life into question”, while her husband called the death of his daughter a “life sentence”.

Broughton denied but was convicted by the jury of manslaughter and supplying class A drugs. He had earlier admitted two charges of supplying drugs to Ms Fletcher-Michie at Glastonbury in June 2017.