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On 2nd December 2006, Pete Doherty and four others, were at a party at the flat of a known Class A drug dealer, Paul Roundhill, in London. Following an altercation with Pete Doherty at the party, 30 year old actor Mark Blanco was founddying in the street, having fallen from the 1st floor balcony of the block to the ground below.
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Shorty after the “fall”, Pete Doherty and his entourage fled the scene, running past Mark who was lying in critical need of help in the street. They got into a taxi and left Blanco to his fate. He died 24 hours later in hospital from severe head injuries.
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One of the women at the party, Annabel Healdsmith, later admitted that Roundhill, Johnny Headlock and Pete Doherty all went outside together to the balcony to eject Mark from the party. The three returned but Mark did not.
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Pete Doherty’s excuse for fleeing the scene was that he was in possession of drugs. That same night, he went on to commit another crime – vandalism – causing thousands of pounds worth of damage in a hotel room where he continued to party with Kate Russell-Pavier, who was celebrating her 19th birthday.
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Three weeks later, Johnny Headlock – Pete Doherty’s bodyguard at the time – walked into Bethnal Green police station and confessed to killing Mark. The next day he retracted his confession with the excuse that he was on drugs at the time. He was released without further questioning. Mental Hospital notes, which declared him of sound mind, have since gone missing. All three men have since said to others that Mark was killed or murdered.
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Pete Doherty has always enjoyed a cosy relationship with Tower Hamlets Police and curiously having appeared in court on numerous occasions for drug related crimes, burglary, theft and assault, he is treated with astounding leniency.
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Roundhill, a drug supplier and police informant, confessed to punching Mark during an altercation at his apartment and setting his hat on fire. He then claimed Mark was trying to make an artistic statement by committing suicide. The London Metropolitan police “accepted” this as the true version of events from their informant. Pete Doherty has since made a similar claim.
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A great deal of evidence submitted points to the fact that Mark was either pushed or dropped over the balcony. The police have ignored this inconvenient evidence, as well as the fact that Mark had severe vertigo and would never have volunteered to jump from the balcony. Little forensic evidence was submitted; CCTV was left unenhanced; and injury biomechanics experts’ reports were dismissed as irrelevant.
No one has ever been held accountable for Mark Blanco’s death. The Metropolitan police quickly attributed the death to an accident or suicide on the night of the tragedy. This was done without proper investigation and before interviewing key witnesses. As for a thorough investigation? Mark’s mother found the lens from her son’s glasses in the gutter outside the flat the day after he fell. The Metropolitan police were, needless to say, long gone.