Ceon Broughton 'wishes he'd done more to save' tragic Louella as conviction is quashed
Ceon Broughton had been found guilty of manslaughter for failing to help Louella Fletcher-Michie as she overdosed on illegal party drug 2C-P at Bestival in 2017, but had his conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal today
Rapper Ceon Broughton declared he "wishes he'd done more to save" his tragic girlfriend Louella Fletcher-Michie after his manslaughter conviction was quashed today.
Broughton, 31, from Enfield, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence for failing to help Louella as she overdosed on illegal party drug 2C-P at Bestival in 2017.
He was found to have filmed his girlfriend as she pleaded for help shortly before her death in woodland close to the festival site.
After being sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars, he appealed his conviction and it was overturned by the Court of Appeal today.
After the ruling was announced, Broughton's lawyers released a statement declaring the rapper remains 'devastated" by Louella's death and "wishes he'd done more to save her".
A statement issued by Birnberg Peirce Solicitors read: "The Court of Appeal has today found that Louella’s death occurred not as a result of criminal negligence but was instead a tragic accident.
"Ceon remains devastated by her death.
"He has always wished that he could have done more to save her. He loved Louella and she him, but he knows that no words will ever be sufficient to convey his sense of responsibility for what happened or to begin to remove the pain that others have been caused."
In a statement previously given for his sentencing earlier this year, Broughton wrote: "Sorry I didn't do more to save Louella, sorry for the suffering I caused to everyone who loved Louella, I want to make things right."
Louella was found dead in woodland close to the Bestival site in Dorset on September 11 2017, an hour before what would have been her 25th birthday.
Prosecutors claimed Broughton failed to get help for his girlfriend even though there was a medical tent just 500 metres away - and instead filmed her as she was dying.
His defence teamed claimed the aspiring musician was worried about getting in trouble because he had previously been handed a suspended jail term for an unrelated offence.
During the trial, Simon Jones, senior Crown Prosecution Service advocate, said: "He was with her for five to six hours alone.
"During that period of time he filmed her on his mobile phone so the deterioration in Louella was clear from a number of sources of mobile phone footage.
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"It was quite clear she desperately needed medical attention and he failed in the duty of care that he had for Louella, he failed to get her medical attention at that festival.
"We saw in the video footage there were occasions he was laughing, he was playing with a fidget spinner, and in the background the person he should have been caring for, the person he gave the drug to, was rapidly deteriorating."
The trial head Louella's actor father John Michie and his wife rushed to the festival site after receiving a distressing phone call from his daughter, but they were too late to save her.
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