Bestival death: Ceon Broughton manslaughter conviction overturned

A rapper who gave his girlfriend medication at a music pageant and filmed her as she died has had his conviction for manslaughter overturned.

Ceon Broughton, 31, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in 2019 over the dying of Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24.

The daughter of Holby Metropolis actor John Michie died after taking the hallucinogenic class A drug 2-CP at Bestival in Dorset in 2017.

Three judges on the Court docket of Enchantment dominated to overturn the conviction.

Miss Fletcher-Michie was discovered lifeless in woodland, 400m from the pageant’s hospital tent within the early hours of 11 September 2017, the day she was attributable to flip 25.

Throughout Broughton’s trial, the jury was proven video shot by the rapper – who used the stage identify CeonRPG – during which Miss Fletcher-Michie grew to become “disturbed, agitated, after which severely unwell”.

Broughton, of Enfield, north London, was discovered responsible of manslaughter by gross negligence and supplying a Class A drug at Winchester Crown Court docket in February final yr.

Delivering the Court docket of Enchantment’s ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett mentioned the skilled proof on the probability of Miss Fletcher-Michie’s surviving if she had she acquired therapy sooner was “not able to establishing causation to the legal customary”.

He added: “In respectful disagreement with the decide, we conclude that the appellant’s predominant argument, that the case ought to have been withdrawn from the jury, is established.

“Taken at its highest, the proof adduced by the prosecution was incapable of proving causation to the legal customary of proof.

“The enchantment towards conviction for manslaughter have to be allowed.”

A press release issued by Broughton’s legal professionals after the conviction was quashed mentioned: “The Court docket of Enchantment has at the moment discovered that Louella’s dying occurred not because of legal negligence however was as an alternative a tragic accident.

“Ceon stays devastated by her dying.

“He has at all times wished that he may have achieved extra to avoid wasting her.

“He cherished Louella and he or she him, however he is aware of that no phrases will ever be adequate to convey his sense of duty for what occurred or to start to take away the ache that others have been brought on.”

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The Court docket of Enchantment dominated there shouldn’t be a retrial for the manslaughter conviction – which accounted for seven years of Broughton’s sentence.

His conviction for supplying his girlfriend with the category A medication stands.