Cops probe Doherty's drug pictures

Troubled rock singer Pete Doherty was being investigated by police on Friday after a British tabloid printed pictures it said showed him injecting drugs into a female fan's arm as she lay unconscious.

It is the latest brush with the law for the 27-year-old, who is more famous for his on-off relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and his heroin addiction than as the frontman of punk outfit Babyshambles.

The Sun tabloid printed the picture on Friday, sayingtwo pictures, of which one is about Doherty injecting himself with some unknown substance, were takenat his home in Hackney, London, within the last five weeks.

"Officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate are investigating the drug allegations made in today's Sun newspaper," a police spokeswoman said. She did not know whether Doherty would be questioned as part of the investigation.

Tony Linkin, who has spoken on behalf of Doherty in the past, was not immediately available for comment.

The pictures come seven months after the Sun's main British tabloid rival the Daily Mirror printed photographs apparently showing Moss snorting large quantities of cocaine while Doherty and his bandmates recorded in a London studio.

Those images prompted several fashion houses to drop Moss, although her career has thrived since she left a drug rehabilitation centre in the United States in October.

Doherty has made a string of court appearances in recent months on drugs charges.

Last week he was arrested for suspected drug possession only hours after a judge spared him a jail term and ordered him to undergo rehabilitation for previous narcotics offences.

The Sun also featured a photograph on Friday that it said showed Moss, 32, in bed. It quoted an unnamed source saying she and Doherty were still together, despite several media reports that the couple had split up.

First Published: Apr 29, 2006 15:41 IST