Family fury at Doherty over party death claims

PETE Doherty has been accused of a ‘reprehensible lack of humanity’ for giving an interview about a man who mysteriously fell to his death after a row with the singer.

The drug addict star claimed police have footage showing how Cambridge graduate Mark Blanco fell ‘unassisted’ to his death from a balcony at a party they were both attending. He said the CCTV would prove he had no involvement in the 30-year-old’s death.

Doherty, 33, also suggested Mr Blanco had been attempting to ply him with crack cocaine at the party and that he had had a fight with him on a previous occasion.

Yesterday Mr Blanco’s mother described the comments as obsecene. She dismissed the interview – in the New Musical Express – as a ‘pathetic, tawdry PR stunt’ to plug a forthcoming solo album.

Mr Blanco, 30, fell 14ft to his death from a first-floor balcony in East London in December 2006.

CCTV footage captured Doherty jumping over the actor’s body and fleeing with his friends and minder, Johnny ‘Headlock’ Jeannevol. Last year the Crown Prosecution Service said Doherty would not face any charges relating to the death.

In the interview, Doherty said Mr Blanco’s family would ‘never be happy unless the police release the footage that shows him falling unassisted. I know they’ve got that’.

He also claimed he only faced ‘ minimal’ questioning from detectives.

Mr Blanco’s mother, Sheila, said: ‘We find it very sinister that it’s taken him this amount of time [for Doherty] to say anything, when he said at the time he could never remember what happened.’

A coroner recorded an open verdict on Mr Blanco in October 2007. The Met police investigation is being reviewed.