Singer Pete Doherty at the time of his arrest Photo: wn.com

Singer Pete Doherty was charged on Tuesday with possessing cocaine in connection with an inquiry into the death of film-maker Robin Whitehead in a Hackney flat in January.

Privately-educated, beautiful, wealthy and privileged, Whitehead was the daughter of 1960s film-maker Peter Whitehead and a scion of the Goldsmith dynasty that includes grandfather Teddy Goldsmith, founder of the Ecologist magazine, the late financier Sir James Goldsmith, socialite Jemima Khan and MP Zac Goldsmith. She was found dead of a suspected overdose in a flat in Daubeny Road, Clapton, on  January 25.

The flat had been rented by Doherty’s friend Peter Wolfe, who faces two counts of possession of cocaine and one of supplying the drug, also in connection with Whitehead’s death. She had been making a documentary, The Road to Albion, about Doherty’s  then former, but recently reformed, band, the Libertines.

Another friend of Doherty, former Lefthand musician Alan Wass, was also charged with possessing cocaine. The three men were charged when they answered bail on Tuesday at a central London police station. A 53-year-old woman who was also arrested has been released with no further action to be taken against her.

All three men are bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 18 October.