Pete Doherty has told a heartbroken mother of a Cambridge graduate who died after allegedly being ‘thrown’ from a balcony at a drug-fuelled house party that he ‘hopes she can come to terms with what happened’.
In Channel 4’s new documentary, Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son? FBI instructor Grand Fredericks reveals how he used groundbreaking 3D technology to recreate aspiring actor Mark Blanco’s final moments at a drug-fueled party in an east London flat in 2006.
Mark died after falling from a first-floor balcony during the party hosted by drug addict Paul Roundhill and attended by rock star Doherty, who was Kate Moss’ drug-addicted boyfriend at the time.
The heartbreaking documentary chronicles Mark’s grieving mother’s desperate attempt to find out what happened to her son that tragic night almost seventeen years ago. It remains unknown how Mark was found unconscious on the floor just minutes after returning to the party for the second time, but Shelia Blanco is still convinced someone pushed her son off the balcony.
In response to reporting the tragic event, Doherty handed a one-line sentence to Channel 4 which read: ‘I am sorry for the loss of Mrs Blanco and I welcome any help people can give her to come to terms with what happened.’
Doherty, 44, now lives in France with his singer Katia de Vides and their daughter.
Pete Doherty has told a heartbroken mother of a Cambridge graduate who died after allegedly being ‘thrown’ from a balcony at a drug-fuelled house party that he ‘hopes she can come to terms with what happened.
Mark’s mother Shelia Blanco is now trying to get to the bottom of her son’s death
CCTV footage of Pete Doherty running from the apartment block where Mark Blanco died
CCTV footage from the night showed Doherty, another friend, 19-year-old Kate Russell-Pavier, and Jeannevol fleeing the scene, callously leaving Mark’s body lying around.
Officers investigated the case and Doherty was implicated following an investigation into the actor’s death, but no charges have been laid so far.
Over the past seventeen years, Shelia has compiled a dossier of experts and evidence in her quest for justice.
CCTV footage from the evening in December 2006 shows Doherty leaving the party with his 19-year-old girlfriend Kate Russell-Pavier, callously avoiding Mark’s unconscious body.
After the fall, he was rushed to the Royal London Hospital, where his parents were told by a neurosurgeon in the early hours of Sunday morning that he would not survive his head injury.
Renowned FBI agent Grand Fredericks has claimed there must have been ‘more than one person on the balcony’ the night a Cambridge graduate was allegedly thrown to death
Pictured: Mark Blanco, actor, with his mother Sheila, on graduation day in June 1997
Police investigated the case and Doherty was implicated following an investigation into the actor’s death, but no charges have been laid so far.
Throughout the documentary, Shelia recalls that the “last promise” she made to her son was that she would “find out what happened at any cost.”
An FBI agent dramatically claimed that the Cambridge graduate who died suspiciously on Piet Doherty‘s house party was ‘murdered’ and that he must have been thrown from the first floor balcony.
Grand Fredericks revealed in the program how he used pioneering 3D technology to recreate aspiring actor Mark Blanco’s final moments at a drug-fuelled party in an east London flat in 2006.
Nearly seventeen years after her son’s death, Shelia Blanco remains convinced that her son was pushed off that balcony – with experts such as FBI instructor Fredericks suggesting he was ‘thrown off’.
Fredericks uses groundbreaking technology to suggest that someone else had been on the balcony before Mark died. After examining the original footage of the fall, the FBI expert then used a 3D and reverse projection, overlaying the new film over the original footage as a way to “step back in time.”
He said: ‘The reverse projection clearly shows that there cannot be just one person on the balcony.
‘What I would see is that Mark has come out and someone has taken Mark and put him over the balcony. If the measurements and distance are correct, Mark was thrown over the balcony and Mark was murdered.’
Naomi Stirk, pictured on the BBC in 2012, spoke in the Channel 4 documentary tonight
FIGHT FOR LIFE: Mark Blanco in the hospital after the tragic events unfolded
The expert further claimed that he had asked the Metropolitan Police to carry out reverse projections more than a decade ago, but they had been unable to do so.
Meanwhile, John Kennedy, a forensic video analyst who worked on the James Bulger case, also said the footage suggested Mark had been pushed to his death.
“He didn’t seem to be in control of his fall,” he said during the documentary. “I had the impression that he was unconscious when he came off the balcony.”
One of the six guests at the party has also claimed for the first time that she too has reason to believe Mark was murdered.
Naomi Stirk recalls that there was a ‘sinister’ atmosphere that evening as she recalled physically escorting witnesses Roundhill and Doherty’s ‘nanny’ Jonathan Jeannevol Mark from the flat.
“From where I was sitting you could see down the hallway and into the kitchen, and there’s a point where I can’t figure out where everyone is,” she says. “I don’t know what happened, but I know something terrible happened.”
These developments have led to Mark’s mother Shelia calling on police to reopen their investigation and re-interview those present that tragic night.
“I’ve always believed that everyone who was in that apartment that night knows what happened,” she said.
Shelia is unwilling to give up the search for the truth about her son’s death.
‘All I want is to find out who is involved in Mark’s death and how he died. There is no vendetta against anyone,” she said.
Determined to find out who was responsible and bring them to justice, the heartbroken mother spent years compiling evidence files and speaking to experts, which has become the focus of the Channel 4 documentary.
“It was my last promise to him,” she remembers. ‘I said I would find out what happened at all costs.
‘I have to do this so that what happened to Mark doesn’t happen to other people. Every death like his deserves a fair trial.
‘The police really need to be held accountable. Not just for my son, but for anyone who has an unexplained death.”
The documentary ends with Shelia picketing outside the Royal Albert Hall, holding a sign reading ‘Pete Doherty, Who Killed my Son?’
She has insisted she has no revenge against the Libertines frontman, adding: “All I want is to find out who is involved in Mark’s death and how he came to be dead.
“There is no vendetta against anyone.”
A brief statement from Doherty was released at the end of the documentary. It said: ‘I am sorry for the loss of Mrs Blanco and I welcome any help people can give her to come to terms with what has happened.’
Doherty, 44, now lives in France with his singer Katia de Vides and their daughter.
Paul Roundhill, who organized the party, said: “Mark was my good friend. I wouldn’t protect anyone who played a role in his death.’
‘My sympathy and support go out to Shelia Blanco. Mark and his family deserve justice,” he added.
A statement from the Met Police said: ‘Our sympathies remain with the family of Mark Blanco. After his death, police launched an investigation into all available evidence.
‘Following the initial investigation, the death has been subject to various reviews by the Met; Where areas for re-investigation were highlighted, these have been pursued by homicide detectives and we have carried out expert analysis of the CCTV footage.
‘The investigation into the death remains ongoing and any new evidence or information will be assessed by detectives.’