Friday, May 20, 2011

Pete Doherty


Musician Pete Doherty has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine.
The 32-year-old, who was due to be playing Glasgow Barrowland later on Friday, was arrested in January last year by police investigating the suspected overdose death of heiress Robyn Whitehead.
The singer, from north London, has been jailed twice before and has admitted possession of class A substances on several occasions.
A spokesman for the Barrowland venue said the gig would be postponed until further notice.
Doherty leaned forward in his seat as he was sentenced at Snaresbrook crown court, east London, but did not show any emotion.
Judge David Radford said he had an "appalling record" of committing offences, having made 13 court appearances in the past.
Peter Wolfe, 42, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine and one count of supplying cocaine to Whitehead, was sentenced to a total of 12 months in prison.
Radford said: "The circumstances in which the committal of these offences which I have to deal with today is tragic.
"Police became aware of the relevant evidence because of the investigation which followed the discovery of the sad death of a young woman who had been present at the address where the offences had been committed.
"The offences involved the social supply of crack cocaine in a crack cocaine pipe, which you handed to that person.
"I make it clear though, abundantly clear, that the young woman's death was not caused by that supply of crack cocaine.
"Unhappily and tragically that woman died from the poisoning of another illegal class A drug which she had chosen to take.
"The grief and loss to her family and friends caused by her death cannot and should not be sought in any way to be expiated by the sentence I pass today."
Whitehead, 27, the granddaughter of the late Teddy Goldsmith, founder of The Ecologist magazine, spent the last 10 days of her life creating a documentary about Doherty.
Her mother, Dido Whitehead, is a cousin of Jemima Khan and Zac Goldsmith, and her father is the film-maker Peter Whitehead.
Outlining the case, prosecutor Alison Morgan said paramedics were called to Wolfe's flat in Landmark Heights, Hackney, east London, at around 8pm on 24 January last year.
They attempted to resuscitate Whitehead but she was pronounced dead shortly after 8pm.
Toxicology reports found she had a combination of cocaine and heroin in her body and had died of heroin poisoning.
When police attended the address they seized a crack pipe along with other drug paraphernalia and the video footage that Whitehead had taken.
Footage filmed on 22 January inside the flat showed Wolfe passing her a crack pipe, which she then smoked.
She said Doherty later joined them and was also filmed smoking on the crack pipe and putting crack cocaine inside it.
She said the drug offences with which the two men had been charged had been committed between 22 January and that day but that the crack cocaine that Wolfe had supplied to Whitehead could not have been what killed her.
During mitigation Peter Ratliff, defending Doherty, said he was renowned for his drug abuse, adding: "It's an offence which addicts commit every day of every year."
He said of his client, who has fronted indie bands Libertines and Babyshambles and has recently been touring as a solo artist: "Any claim that this defendant somehow glamorises drug use is misguided.
"He takes no pleasure in his addiction. It's one thing he's said publicly he would not wish upon his worst enemy.
"He is acutely aware of the agonising nature of addiction.
"He has to live with the fact that when he receives publicity it's almost entirely negative and that's entirely for his actions."

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