Pete Doherty could face a private prosecution from the friends and family of Mark Blanco, the man who fell to his death from an East London balcony in 2006 after an altercation with the former Libertines singer.
The Guardian reports that Scotland Yard will tell Blanco’s family this week whether they think their investigations into the event will lead to any prosecutions. Blanco fell to his death after an exchange with Doherty, Doherty’s friend and drug-dealer Paul Roundhill and his minder Johnny Jeannevol. CCTV has shown Doherty stepping over Blanco’s body shortly after his death.
Should police choose not to prosecute, a private action from two of Blanco’s friends could be taken against Roundhill and Jeannevol for assault, or wider charges against those two and Doherty.
30-year-old Blanco’s mother Sheila said, “I’m not going away… But it can’t be right that we’re having to spend thousands of pounds and all of our time doing a job the police should be doing.”
Scotland Yard once thought that Blanco’s death was a suicide, though this and a case of accidental death was ruled out at the inquest, where Jeannevol actually admitted killing Blanco only to retract it, and at present Roundhill, Doherty and Jeannevol deny any wrongdoing.
