Peter Doherty responds to Channel 4 documentary about the death of Mark Blanco
Peter Doherty has responded to the claims made in the recent Channel 4 documentary about the death of Mark Blanco.
The film titled Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son? aired last month. It centres around the death of 30-year-old Blanco in 2006 at a party held at the flat of Paul Roundhill which Doherty attended. The documentary showed CCTV footage of Blanco falling to his death from the balcony of the property.
His mother, Sheila Blanco, believes he didn’t fall to his death accidentally as the Metropolitan Police ruled, and in the documentary, experts reviewed the footage of the moment he lost his life. On the fatal evening, Blanco was evicted from the building from Roundhill and Doherty’s minder Johnny ’Headlock’ Jeannevol before returning and falling from the balcony.
While the police have previously examined the case, Sheila Blanco is urging them to re-open their investigation. She said in the documentary: “It’s absolutely callous. A reprehensible lack of humanity. He was definitely pushed over, thrown over, but the Metropolitan Police do not wish to uncover what the truth is. It’s not the job of a mother to investigate her son’s death.”
Now, Doherty has responded to the claims made in the film and shared his sympathies with Blanco’s mother. Speaking to The Evening Standard, Doherty said: “There is no new information to have. The further away we get from that moment, whatever happened to Mark, the less likely we are to find out,’ he says. ‘You have to just think, she’s [Blanco’s mother] lost her son. Her feelings are valid so if her taking it out on me makes her feel better, let her do it.”
Doherty previously provided the following statement to the documentary: “I am sorry for Mrs Blanco’s loss and I welcome any assistance people can give her to come to terms with what happened.”
In the same interview with The Evening Standard, Doherty’s wife, Katie De Vidas revealed she was considering taking legal advice against the documentary. “The lawyer said to me, ‘There is a question mark [in the title]’ With a question mark, it’s not an accusation. Come on! Peter doesn’t know more! End of the story.”
DeVidas recently directed the documentary Peter Doherty — Stranger in My Own Skin, which premiered at the Zurich Film Festival and is set to arrive in select cinemas on November 9th.
Speaking about the film which graphically details his well-documented battle with addiction. Doherty said in the new interview: “For all the dark sides of [addiction], there was a feeling of surviving — or not surviving — outside of that system that just fascinated me. And for those few hours in a crack den, anywhere in the world, it didn’t matter where you were, you’d find your people. It’s like being interested in anything. Like cyclists — you go anywhere in the world and you find people who are interested in cycling and who know the best places to cycle.”
Watch the trailer below.
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