Pete Doherty to sell blood paintings

Pictures painted by Pete Doherty using his own blood are to go on show.

The singer is to exhibit them at a London gallery and charge about £1,000 each to sell them, the Evening Standard has learned.

His friends say they help prove his innocence over claims he injected a female fan with heroin while she lay unconscious at his Hackney flat. Doherty was arrested on Saturday by police investigating a photo in The Sun, apparently showing him sticking a needle in the arm of Laura McEvoy, 21.

He faces a maximum 10-year jail sentence if prosecuted and found guilty under the Offences Against The Person Act. But Doherty, 27, claims he was actually drawing blood from Ms McEvoy to use in a painting.

The paintings shown here were completed over the past six months. They are being stored at the home of Paul Roundhill, 51, his self-styled literary agent, in Whitechapel.

Mr Roundhill said today: "I picked these pictures up at his flat in Hackney. Blood paintings are something he has done for a long time. I think they help explain the photograph of Laura. It shows he does do blood paintings." He said convent-educated Ms McEvoy was not a "druggie" but a "nice girl".

"I really don't think Pete was injecting her," he said. "It was just staged."

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