Louella Michie court case: Friend told boyfriend 'fam, just act like you don't know her' as woman was dying of drug overdose at Bestival
Emotional day in court ends after family recount hearing news of daughter's death
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The family of a woman who was filmed as she died from a drug overdose at a music festival have given evidence at the trial of the man accused of her manslaugher.
Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, daughter of Holby City actor John Michie, died after taking the Class A party drug 2-CP at the Dorset music festival Bestival on 11 September 2017.
Ceon Broughton, 29, from Enfield in north London, denies the charge and another of supplying the drug to Fletcher-Michie.
Ms Fletcher-Michie's mother Carol was among those giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday.
In a 50-minute video shown to the court on Wednesday, Fletcher-Michie was seen shouting: “This is the best trip I have ever f***ing had.”
Mr Broughton ignored subsequent pleas from her family to seek help and continued to film even after she was dead, jurors at Winchester Crown Court heard.
Jurors were told Fletcher-Michie’s mother eventually contacted Mr Broughton at 6.48pm and heard her daughter “screeching” in the background.
She “dropped everything” and travelled with Mr Michie to the festival site at Lulworth Castle, the court heard.
Fletcher-Michie was found dead by security at around 1am on 11 September 2017 after Mr Broughton left her to seek help, the court was told.
Read below for the developments as they unfolded.
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Ms Fletcher-Michie said that when she first heard Louella's voice as Broughton spoke to her mother, her sister was saying, 'I don't trust you' 'Get away from me' and "screaming really badly".
"I instantly burst into tears," she said.
Fighting back tears, she added: "It's so obvious to me [now] he did nothing to help her and put himself first."
Under cross-examination, Daisy insisted: "There is no way I can believe that over six hours somebody who has tried [with] their best efforts to get someone to a medical centre 400 metres away...[could fail]
"I think she loved him, but I don't think he loved her.
"I think she loved him but now there's no way that he loved her"
Louella's brother Sam has entered the witness box and is about to talk about the phone conversation that he overheard between Broughton and his mother.
"I heard my sister screeching and screaming," Sam tells the court. "I have never heard her sound like that. she was obviously in a lot of trouble."
"We were just asking Ceon to get her help," Sam says. "I also called Ceon and begged him to get her to the medical tent."
In the private call he made from his mother's room, Sam said: "I urged him to get her to the medical tent. He assured me he would."
Sam explained he asked Broughton what his sister had taken, but wasn't entirely clear whether he was told 2C-P or 2C-B.
"I wasn't sure. I didn't know there was a difference," he told the court.
Sam added that Broughton told him that he had "bumped it up a bit".
Sam said that the way he understood it this referred to "maybe a bigger dose".
Sam told the court he had himself taken 2C-P or 2C-B.
Asked if he had taken the drug, he said he had done so with his sister and Broughton at a festival in Wales and at Bestival 2016.
He said: "I have taken it before with Louella and Ceon at a festival in Wales. We bought it off someone who was camping next to us who we didn't know."
At Bestival 2016, he added, they again "brought it off someone camping next to us."
He said he had also bought the drug from Broughton in London in May 2017.
Sam said that on the occasions he took 2C-P with Louella and Broughton, "It was just like a nice, light trip that we all enjoyed. Just a bit giggly, not like an intense trip."
He had also seen his sister on ecstasy at festivals, he said.
But he added: "She went to a lot of festivals and I went to a lot of festivals with her. Sometimes, she wouldn't take anything and wouldn't even drink, and have a good time.
"She was a light user. She wouldn't be doing lots of pills or anything."
Stephen Kamlish QC, defending, took Sam through a statement he gave to police in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
In it, the court heard, Sam said Broughton was trying to calm him down when he told him over the phone that his sister was 'being a drama queen'.
In his initial statement to police, the court heard, Sam said: "I know he was looking after her and he loved her. I trusted him, trusted everything he was doing.
"[He was] doing his best to try and get help, I am sure he was."
But in court, Sam explained he had given the statement at a time when the family wanted to support Broughton against headlines saying he had been arrested for murder.
Sam told the court: "The first headline was 'murder'. We knew it wasn't that. Subconsciously we had his back.
"That's what I felt at the time. At the time it happened, we did want to support him."