Rapper who left Holby star’s daughter for dead ‘took sadistic pleasure in giving women drugs then filming them’
THE rapper accused of leaving a Holby City star's daughter for dead took sadistic pleasure in giving women drugs then filming them.
Ceon Broughton, 31, was sentenced to eight years behind bars for the manslaughter of girlfriend Louella Fletcher-Michie, who died after taking an hallucinogenic he gave her at Bestival in 2017.
But the 31-year-old Londoner today had his conviction over the death of actor John Michie's 24-year-old daughter quashed.
High Court judges ruled expert evidence that the young woman would have survived if he'd called for help during the trial last year had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
It had been claimed Louella would have had a 90% chance of survival if she had been provided with medical treatment five hours after she took the drug.
The guilty verdict had come after an exhaustive trial in court last year heard how Louella died after taking 2C-P that Broughton had given her during the music festival at Lulworth Castle, Dorset in 2017.
And after Broughton was found guilty of manslaughter, the court heard how he had taken "sadistic pleasure" in giving women drugs then filming them spiralling out of control.
Before Louella his most recent target had been former lover Paulina Aberg who he gave drugs until she collapsed bleeding.
He then did nothing to help, instead taking a sick picture of her on his phone as she lay on the floor. A month later he did the same to the TV actor’s daughter.
Louella had been found dead in the early hours of September 11, the day she should have celebrated her 25th birthday, in a wooded area at the edge of the festival site.
The court had previously been shown distressing footage of Louella in the last moments before her death, with the yoga and dance teacher becoming disturbed, agitated and seriously ill, groaning, scratching her flesh and attempting to eat thorns on September 10, 2017.
But instead of helping her, Broughton filmed her "bad trip" - just 430 yards from the festival's on-site welfare tent.
'YOU'RE EVIL'
As he was found guilty last year, the young woman's dad John Michie read out an emotional statement, telling him: "You're evil".
"We began our life sentence on what would have been Louella's 25th birthday.
"Ceon's life sentence is knowing he didn't help Louella to live."
The drug-dealing musician was also said to have an unhealthy interest in death and had pictures on his phone of dead or dying people described as “grotesque” in court.
But his lawyer Stephen Kamlish QC had convinced the judge it would not be fair to allow the new evidence to be heard before the jury during the trial.
He admitted: “They may feel the defendant took a non-healthy interest in Louella’s suffering. A callous pleasure in the pain of others.
“This very much changes the case against my client. It becomes sadistic pleasure rather than failing to act.”
Yet in a statement released by Broughton's lawyers today, the young man said he was still "devastated" by her death.
The statement read: "Ceon remains devastated by her death. He has always wished that he could have done more to save her.
"He loved Louella and she him, but he knows that no words will ever be sufficient to convey his sense of responsibility for what happened or to begin to remove the pain that others have been caused."
Broughton, 31, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence and handed an eight-and-a-half-year sentence in March 2019, following a trial at Winchester Crown Court.
At the High Court today Lord Burnett quashed the conviction saying: "In our view, this is one of those rare cases where the expert evidence was all that the jury had to assist them in answering the question on causation.
"The appeal against conviction for manslaughter must be allowed."
But at the appeal hearing, Broughton's barrister Stephen Kamlish QC argued the conviction was unsafe because prosecutors had "failed to prove" that Miss Fletcher-Michie would have survived had she received treatment by a certain point.
He also argued Broughton's sentence was "excessive" in any event.
He argued: "The Crown cannot prove, now or at trial, that she would have lived had see been treated.
"The appellant was trying to get help. So he cannot be described as criminally grossly negligent."
He said Broughton had felt unable to leave Miss Fletcher-Michie alone, in woods, while she was suffering a "bad trip", and he had not realised she was at risk of death.
The jury at Broughton's trial had found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
He was also found guilty of supplying Louella with 2C-P at the festival.
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Broughton previously admitted supplying drugs to Miss Fletcher-Michie at Glastonbury festival, in June 2017, and was in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed for possessing a lock knife and a Stanley knife blade.
Prosecutors told jurors during his trial that Broughton failed to take "reasonable" steps to seek medical help for Miss Fletcher-Michie.
They said he did not get help because he had been handed the suspended jail term a month earlier and feared the consequences.
Broughton previously admitted supplying drugs to Miss Fletcher-Michie at Glastonbury festival, in June 2017, and was in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed for possessing a lock knife and a Stanley knife blade.
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Prosecutors told jurors during his trial that Broughton failed to take "reasonable" steps to seek medical help for Miss Fletcher-Michie.
They said he did not get help because he had been handed the suspended jail term a month earlier and feared the consequences.
