editorial comment Good to know the police is working hard on important cases......

Pete Doherty, frontman with the band Babyshambles, was released on police bail last night after being arrested earlier in a drugs raid on a venue in Shrewsbury, where he had been playing. Doherty, the on-off boyfriend of supermodel Kate Moss, had been performing at the town's Music Hall on Saturday night shortly before it was raided by detectives with sniffer dogs. A number of items recovered during the raid will be forensically examined; a quantity of what were believed to be class A drugs was also recovered.

Article continues

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
West Mercia police confirmed last night that Doherty had been held for more than 12 hours and released on bail until December. A woman was also detained but released after questioning; 17 other people were searched. Last night's Babyshambles gig in Norwich was cancelled.
Doherty protested his innocence on leaving Telford police station, claiming anti-drug officers had mistaken a prescription implant for drugs. The singer, paraphrasing Samuel Johnson, is said to have described the law as a "pain in the arse". He then crossed the road to have a drink at the Severn Gorge pub.

A woman working in the pub said he stayed for about 20 minutes. "He took his drink with him when one of our girls took him back to his hotel. He was very nice while he was here."

Tony Linkin, a spokesman for the band's management company, said he believed police had also detained members of Babyshambles' support group, the Littl'ans. A message posted by a member of the Littl'ans on Babyshambles' official notice board described how, after the gig, police had raided their minibus "SAS-style" and taken them to the station in handcuffs. The posting continued: "Some of the Shambles were there when we got there, but we were the only ones in cuffs."

The Shrewsbury raid follows a similar one on a west London recording studio where Kate Moss was photographed allegedly cutting up cocaine with her credit card as Doherty looked on.

Doherty's arrest has upset Babyshambles fans, who have been discussing his latest brush with the law on the group's official website. Some believe there is a witch-hunt against Doherty, while others say a spell in prison could help to sort out the singer's problems

back | to top | full article >>