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Doherty escapes drugs jail term | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
The singer Pete Doherty has escaped jail after a judge decided to defer sentencing him for drugs offences on condition he goes into rehab. | |
Doherty earlier pleaded guilty to possessing crack cocaine and heroin at West London Magistrates' Court. | |
He was warned by Judge Davinder Lachhar that he would go into custody if he failed to take up a place he was offered on a detox programme. | |
Doherty, 28, pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing illegal drugs. | |
As well as crack cocaine and heroine, he also pleaded guilty to possessing quantities of cannabis and ketamine as well as to two driving offences. | |
Last chance | |
Earlier, a warrant was issued for his arrest because he was more than two hours late for his hearing. | |
But the singer finally arrived and waded through a crowd of photographers into the court house. | |
At court the judge told him: "If you go to this place to have detox and take advantage of it then we will see what sentence is appropriate when you next come." | |
"But if you do not I can tell you now that you will go into custody." | |
He was charged after he was stopped in a car by officers in Kensington High Street, west London, on 5 May. | He was charged after he was stopped in a car by officers in Kensington High Street, west London, on 5 May. |
Doherty has appeared in court on a number of drug offences over the past nine months and was praised in April by District Judge Jane McIvor at Thames Magistrates' Court for "more than co-operating" in his struggle to beat his addiction to illegal substances. |