Image copyright Zoe Barling/PA Wire A rapper who gave his girlfriend drugs at a music festival and filmed her as she died has had his conviction for manslaughter overturned.
Ceon Broughton, 31, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in 2019 over the death of Louella Fletcher-Michie, 24.
The daughter of Holby City actor John Michie died after taking the hallucinogenic class A drug 2-CP at Bestival in Dorset in 2017.
Three judges at the Court of Appeal ruled to overturn the conviction.
Miss Fletcher-Michie was found dead in woodland, 400m from the festival’s hospital tent in the early hours of 11 September 2017, the day she was due to turn 25.
During Broughton’s trial, the jury was shown video shot by the rapper - who used the stage name CeonRPG - in which Miss Fletcher-Michie became “disturbed, agitated, and then seriously ill”.
Broughton, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence and supplying a Class A drug at Winchester Crown Court in March last year.
Delivering the Court of Appeal’s ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said the expert evidence on the likelihood of Miss Fletcher-Michie’s surviving if she had she received treatment sooner was “not capable of establishing causation to the criminal standard”.
He added: “In respectful disagreement with the judge, we conclude that the appellant’s main argument, that the case should have been withdrawn from the jury, is established.
“Taken at its highest, the evidence adduced by the prosecution was incapable of proving causation to the criminal standard of proof.
“The appeal against conviction for manslaughter must be allowed.”
A statement issued by Broughton’s lawyers after the conviction was quashed said: “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.”
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The Court of Appeal ruled there should not be a retrial for the manslaughter conviction - which accounted for seven years of Broughton’s sentence.
His conviction for supplying his girlfriend with the class A drugs stands.
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