Rapper Ceon Broughton has had his conviction for the manslaughter of his girlfriend Louella Fletcher-Michie overturned at a Court of Appeal hearing.
Ceon Broughton was found guilty of killing Fletcher-Michie - the daughter of Holby City and Coronation Street actor John Michie - after providing her with the hallucinogenic drug 2-CP at Bestival music festival at Lulworth Castle in Dorset in 2017.
Miss Fletcher-Michie was found dead in a wooded area at the music festival site on 11 September, the day of her 25th birthday.
Thirty-one-year-old Broughton was given an eight-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter by gross negligence at Winchester Crown Court in March 2019, but challenged the conviction and jail time in June, leading to three judges overturning it today.
In the Court of Appeal, Broughton's barrister Mr Stephen Kamlish QC said that the conviction was not safe because the prosecution had 'failed to prove' that Miss Fletcher-Michie would not have died had she received treatment at an earlier point.
He argued that the sentence handed down was 'excessive'.
Broughton also admitted that he'd supplied drugs to Fletcher-Michie at Glastonbury in June 2017. He also had a suspended sentence for possession of two blades.
The prosecution cases at the original trial argued that Mr Broughton had failed to make a 'reasonable' effort to seek out medical help for Miss Fletcher-Michie when she became ill after taking the drugs.
They argued that the suspended sentence that Mr Broughton was in possession of made him fearful of incriminating himself by admitting that he'd supplied the drugs that Fletcher-Michie had taken.
The ruling was handed down by Mr Justice Sweeney, Lord Chief Justice Burnett and Mr Justice Murray this morning.
The Mirror reports that Lord Burnett said: "In our view, this is one of those rare cases where the expert evidence was all that the jury had to assist them in answering the question on causation.
"That expert evidence was not capable of establishing causation to the criminal standard.
"Miss Darlow's final submission that at 21:10 Louella was deprived of a 90 percent chance of survival was an accurate reflection of Professor Deakin's evidence but, for the reasons we have explained, that is not enough.
"Put another way, if an operation carried a personal 10 percent risk of mortality, both patient and clinicians would be able confidently to say that the chances of survival were very high or very good but none could be sure."
"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.
"Applying the Galbraith test, 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."
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