Doherty's friend recalls death-fall night

Pete Doherty's friend Johnny Headlock has spoken about the party where a fellow guest fell to his death.

Actor Mark Blanco died after plunging from the balcony of the East London flat of Doherty's literary agent, Paul Roundhill, last week, while the singer and Headlock were socialising inside.

Blanco had argued with Doherty earlier in the night and Headlock had tried to get him out of the flat.

"[Blanco] kept going on about a play, on and on and on," recalled Headlock, who claims to have helped Doherty through his difficulties for several years. "He kept grabbing Peter and I could see it in his eyes, Pete was going to me, 'Johnny, tell him, man.'

"I was trying to control him. He's 6ft 5in, he's not small. We kept telling him to shut up and sit down and he wouldn't have it," he told the Mail on Sunday. "So I tried to get him to leave the flat. He pushed me and then Peter sat down and Paul was grabbing him. Paul got him out of the door and said, 'Johnny, give us a hand'.

"We got him through the door leading to the outside balcony and then we've gone back in. It must have been about five minutes between Mark arriving and Mark leaving."

Headlock, with Doherty, left the flat after the incident, but police later contacted him asking for an interview. Detectives now say they do not believe a "third party" was involved in the death. "