UK news This article is more than 4 years oldJury shown video of TV actor's daughter before drugs death at festival
This article is more than 4 years oldLouella Fletcher-Michie seen calling for parents in footage shown at boyfriend’s trial
Jurors have watched footage and listened to a recording of an actor’s daughter appearing to hallucinate after taking drugs at a music festival, before she collapsed and died.
Louella Fletcher-Michie, the daughter of the Holby City actor John Michie, was seen shouting for her mother and father and apparently so confused she was trying to eat thorns and slap herself.
Her boyfriend, Ceon Broughton, 29, is alleged to have given her the class A drug 2C-P at Bestival in Dorset in September last year, causing her to die an hour before her 25th birthday.
Broughton, of Enfield, north London, denies manslaughter and supplying the drug to Fletcher-Michie. The prosecution claims Broughton filmed his girlfriend and failed to get help because he had been given a suspended prison sentence a month earlier and feared the consequences.
On Wednesday, jurors at Winchester crown court were shown a 51-minute video of Fletcher-Michie hours before she died. She shouted incoherently, yelled “Dad, I love you” and repeatedly said: “This is the best trip I’ve ever fucking had.” At one point she called out “I’m seeing colourful taxis” and at another said: “Magical monkey riding the forest.”
Fletcher-Michie, a dancer and yoga teacher, also shouted “This is the happiest I’ve ever been”, and claimed a number of times that Broughton’s video of her would make her billions of pounds. During the video, Fletcher-Michie was also seen slapping herself on her legs.
Broughton allegedly began recording in a forest at the Bestival site at 5.53pm on 10 September 2017.
In an audio clip from 8.49pm, Fletcher-Michie was making high-pitched noises. Broughton could allegedly be heard saying “Louella it’s me”, before laughing. He then allegedly said: “Stop eating thorns, you are just going to cut your beautiful fucking skin.”
The court has heard the hospital area on the festival grounds in Lulworth Castle, Dorset, was only 400 metres away, but Broughton made no attempt to take her there for medical assistance.
Jurors were told the Holby City and former Coronation Street actor Michie, 62, drove 130 miles from their north London home after his wife, Carol Fletcher, heard Fletcher-Michie “screeching” on the phone.
She was found dead by security at about 1am on 11 September after Broughton left her to seek help, the court was told.
A friend of Broughton said he was urged by Fletcher-Michie’s boyfriend to tell her parents not to come to the festival site.
Ezra Campbell, who went to Bestival, said Fletcher-Michie and Broughton split off from their group when they went to the forest area.
He told the court her brother, Sam Michie, messaged him as he was worried about his sister. Campbell spoke to Broughton on the phone at 7.13pm and thought Fletcher-Michie sounded fine, and believed Sam may have been overreacting.
“I could hear her singing and it sounded like she was having fun. I thought Sam was maybe overreacting and maybe that Louella just rejected their calls,” Campbell said.
“I didn’t see Louella take anything, but I thought they might have taken something by the way they behaved.
“I thought they must have taken 2C-P as they were giggling, I’ve taken it before with them at previous festivals, so I know what they are like.”
Campbell said he told Broughton that Fletcher-Michie’s parents were travelling down, but Broughton urged him to tell them “It’s cool” and not to come.
Later, Campbell realised there was a problem when he heard Fletcher-Michie scream in an audio clip Broughton had sent him.
“I said to him on the phone ‘Should I call an ambulance?’ and I heard a scream, and that was the moment I stopped and realised there was a problem,” he said.
The trial continues.
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