Pete Doherty jailed for 6 months

Pete Doherty has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine.He was charged after the death from a suspected overdose of 27-year-old Robyn Whitehead at a flat in Daubeney Road, Hackney in January 2010.

Toxicology reports found she had a combination of cocaine and heroin in her body and had died of heroin poisoning. She had been filming a documentary about Pete Doherty. The court heard that the musician was at the flat with her on the evening she died.

Another man, Peter Wolfe, who was also at the flat, pleaded guilty to possessing and supplying the woman with cocaine. He was sentenced to twelve months in prison. However, the judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court emphasised that his supply of cocaine did not cause the overdose from which Robyn Whitehead died.

The court heard that Pete Doherty had been jailed twice before for possessing drugs. His lawyer told the court that the 32-year-old took:

no pleasure in his addiction and to live with the fact that when he receives publicity it’s almost entirely negative and that’s entirely for his actions.

Robyn Whitehead was the granddaughter of Teddy Goldsmith, the founder of The Ecologist magazine. Her mother, Dido Whitehead, is a cousin of Jemima Khan and Zac Goldsmith, and her father is the film-maker Peter Whitehead.