Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty sentenced to community service for drug possession

LONDON (AP) _ Pete Doherty, the troubled former boyfriend of Kate Moss, was sentenced to 12 months of community service Wednesday for possessing drugs. <br/><br/>Doherty, 26-year-old front man of the group

Wednesday, February 8th 2006, 10:00 am

By: News On 6

LONDON (AP) _ Pete Doherty, the troubled former boyfriend of Kate Moss, was sentenced to 12 months of community service Wednesday for possessing drugs.

Doherty, 26-year-old front man of the group Babyshambles, had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges.

He spoke only to confirm his name and address, and appeared disoriented during the hearing at Ealing Magistrates' Court in west London, glancing frequently toward supporters in the public gallery. They burst into applause when it became clear Doherty would not be going to jail.

Judge Ann McLaughlin warned Doherty that if he broke the drug rehabilitation requirement of his community service order he would be brought back before the court and might go to jail.

The maximum sentence for possession of Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine is seven years in prison.

She ordered Doherty to submit to a drug test each month and told him to return to Thames Magistrates' Court on March 8 for a review of the order.

Prosecutor Bryony Derbyshire had told the court Doherty was stopped by police in London on Nov. 30, and heroin and cocaine were found in his car.

He was stopped again four days later, when police found heroin, morphine, crack cocaine and marijuana in his car.

Doherty was again stopped by police in London on Jan. 26, when he was found to be carrying heroin. He pleaded guilty at three earlier hearings to seven counts of drug possession in relation to these incidents.

Doherty's lawyer, Sean Curran, had argued against a jail sentence.

``He is only a harm to himself, and the real shame here would be if he did not receive the treatment he needs,'' Curran said.

Moss, 31, lost modeling contracts with H&M, Burberry and Chanel after the Daily Mirror tabloid published pictures of her allegedly using cocaine in a west London music studio where Doherty, then her boyfriend, was recording with his group Babyshambles.

She later went into a rehabilitation clinic in Arizona and has since resumed her modeling career.