Taggart star John Michie says daughter’s boyfriend ‘let her die’ from overdose

John Michie, who starred in Coronation Street and Taggart. Pic: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24, was given drugs by her on-off boyfriend Ceon Broughton, 29, and died as her parents rushed to help her, it is alleged.

Mr Michie wept in the witness stand at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday as he gave evidence about the day of her death.

Louella took the class A party drug 2-CP at Bestival in Dorset on September 10, 2017 and died in woodland an hour before her 25th birthday.

Broughton, of Enfield, north London, denies manslaughter and supplying Louella the drug.

The jury heard her family were eating Sunday dinner in their north London home when they received a call from Broughton in which Louella could also be heard.

Mr Michie, whose family was based in Edinburgh, said: “The thing that I most remember was that Louella seemed very distressed. I could hear her in the background shouting things like ‘I hate you, I don’t trust you’, obviously referring to Ceon.”

He added: “I’ve never heard her speak in that way. It almost didn’t sound like her.”

The actor, who began his career at the Traverse Theatre, said he could hear Broughton’s voice on loudspeaker and added: “He didn’t seem to be concerned, I thought. Obviously any normal person would be concerned.”

Louella’s worried parents jumped in their car to go to find their daughter at the festival but they struggled to gain entry and persuade security to look for her.

The couple’s daughter was eventually found dead by a  security steward in the woodland, 400m from the festival’s hospital tent, at around 1am, after Broughton left her to seek help.

Mr Michie said he thought Louella and Broughton’s relationship was “beautiful to see” and that he issued a statement in support of Broughton following press reports he was allegedly involved in murder.

But he said he had not realised “how he had not taken her to get help, how he had seen her in a very, very distressed state and how, I believe, he possibly even filmed her after she had died”.

“I think Louella loved Ceon. I’m not sure he loved her. I don’t know how you could ever say you loved someone if you left them to die in front of you.”

The trial continues.