Sheila Blanco has been investigating the death of her son, Mark, for nearly 17 years. She has given interviews many times since 2006 to keep her son’s name in the spotlight, in the hope that this will apply pressure where it needs to be applied. The one-off documentary, Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son? – note that crucial comma – forms another part of her investigation.
It is a sad and frustrating story, driven by Sheila’s persistence, despite a sense that people have been pulling down the shutters on her for almost two decades. There are certainly plenty of questions left to ask. On 3 December 2006, her son, Mark, a 30-year-old actor, went to the flat of a man named Paul Roundhill in Whitechapel, east London. He had posters with him for his forthcoming play, a production of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and the suggestion is that he wanted to invite the rock star Doherty, who was at the flat that night, to come and see it.
