Louella Fletcher-Michie trial: Jury reminded how Ceon Broughton filmed girlfriend as she died from drug overdose at Bestival
Trial due to finish on Wednesday as jury begin deliberations
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The jury in the trial of Ceon Broughton, the man accused of manslaughter over the drug overdose death of Louella Fletcher-Michie at a music festival, will shortly begin their deliberations.
Mr Broughton’s barrister, Stephen Kamlish QC, urged the jury on Tuesday morning in his closing statement not to seek “vengeance” over Ms Fletcher-Michie’s death at Bestival in September 2017.
The court heard during the course of the trial how the 29-year-old filmed his on-off girlfriend as she overdosed on class A substance 2-CP at the music event the night before her 25th birthday.
Mr Broughton denies any wrongdoing.
On the final day of testimony, the jury were reminded by the judge how Mr Broughton filmed his dying girlfriend for 50 mins as she suffered from the overdose.
The prosecution claim he supplied the drugs to Ms Fletcher-Michie and should have organised medical help as soon as he realised she was struggling.
But Mr Kamlish told the jury they should not see the case in hindsight.
"If you think ‘morally wrong’; ‘he should have done more’ and ‘if he gave the drugs, he should pay’; ‘he should not have been thinking of himself’ … We all think those things, all of us normal people, including Ceon – now, in hindsight.
“But that is not the basis on which you should decide this case, [although] it is tempting to do so.”
Mr Broughton had realised just how ill Ms Fletcher-Michie was and his video showed not that he was callous or indifferent, but unaware how close to death the 24-year-old was.
The jury heard how Mr Broughton had tried to get help, telling another friend at Bestival where the pair were.
But the judge also reminded them how he had spoken with Ms Fletcher-Michie's mother and brother on the phone during the evening, who pleaded with him to take her to the medical tent.
Despite being just 400m from the medical tent, Mr Broughton did not take her to professional help.
Instead, he continued filming as his girlfriend gradually died over several hours, during which she became incoherent and even screamed "like a wild animal".
Mr Broughton is charged with gross negligence manslaughter and supplying a Class A drug.
If found guilty and sentenced to the maximum possible term of imprisonment, he could face 18 years in jail.
To read updates from the trial as it happened, see our live coverage below:
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Mr Kamlish tells the jury he will end his speech by playing two clips of Broughton and Louella when they had seemingly taken drugs together.
In one, Louella can be heard saying "whee". In the other, she is telling Broughton, "This little boy's been hallucinating".
Mr Kamlish tells the jury: "This was a good relationship. The Michie family say Louella loved Ceon. Most agree he loved her, although some members of the family are no longer so sure. Carol Michie [Louella's mother] describes this as the best relationship she [Louella] had ever had, that Louella had been happier with Ceon than anyone else: they never argued, they used to go into the outdoors together.
"To criminalise all this does just not do justice."
The judge, The Honourable Mr Justice Goose, is now beginning his summing up the case.
He describes the location of the wooded area where Louella was found dead.
He reminds the jury of how Louella's friends said she was not a heavy drugs user.
One, the judge says, described Louella as "quite sensible as a person, so I would not expect her to take a lot of drugs."
The judge says the weather had been poor at Bestival on the night Louella died.
He talks the jury through Louella's movements as described by the witnesses who saw her with Broughton.
After Louella's death, the judge says, a detective investigated the prevalence of drugs at Bestival 2017, based partly on the recollections of organisers and security staff.
The judge says this produced the findings that 225 people were indicated by sniffer dogs and 36 per cent were found with drugs.
The judge adds: "There were no seizures of 2C-P."
When drugs amnesty bins were checked, the judge says, there were found to contain 1,456 items.
"Nine of them were 2C-B," says the judge, "But no 2C-P was found.
"So where did the 2C-P come from? Who supplied the 2C-P? The prosecution say it was the defendant."
The defence says Broughton lost his own drugs and could not have supplied Louella.
Taking the jury through the prosecution argument, the judge says a message from Broughton to Louella shows him telling her: "Sam T will have them."
The judge says: "This was the defendant telling where he would find drugs.
"The prosecution say this is consistent with the defendant supplying the drugs as he had at Glastonbury.
"The prosecution says taking all this evidence together you can be sure the defendant supplied 2C-P to the deceased that night."
The judge says he will not be showing the 50-minute, eight-second video that started at 17:53 on the night in question.
The jury have already seen the video earlier in the trial. The judge will describe it.
The judge says of the video: "at 20 minutes there is a screeching quality to her voice. She now doesn't appear to react when spoken to by the defendant.
"At 40 minutes she is appearing more confused."
The judge then addresses the fact that Broughton phoned Louella's mother Carol at 18:47.
"It didn't connect. He rang again and there is a call of zero length, so she rang him back.
"It's quite a key moment, because the defendant called Mrs Fletcher-Michie.
"You will need to consider what that meant and why he did it."
Louella's brother Sam, the judge says, messaged Broughton, saying, "Please take Louella to the medical tent, please."
Nine seconds after that, says the judge, Sam sent Broughton another message: "She needs to be with professionals."
And later, the judge says, Sam asked Broughton "Did you get her there, bro?"
Talking the jury through later video clips, the judge says: "The deceased was groaning and moaning with no coherence, not responding to the defendant.
"He told her 'Stop eating thorns, you are going to cut up your beautiful f***ing skin.
"She is lacking any coherence.
"That is at 8.45pm."