Dead man rising

The inquest into the death of Mark Blanco was halted yesterday after the coroner got tired of all the conflicting evidence and recorded an open verdict.

We're a bit surprised to hear a coroner complaining about conflicting evidence - isn't his job kind of dependent on conflicting evidence? After all, if there was never any disagreement about what happened when people die, there'd not be much point in having inquests in the first place.

Anyway, he's handed the whole thing back to the Metropolitan Police to investigate, and amongst the items for them to consider more carefully the curious shifting testimony of Johnny 'Headlock' Jeannevol. At various times, Headlock - who you'll also remember from telling the tabloids about the sex he may or may not have had with Amy Winehouse - has confessed to pushing Blanco, told the Mail On Sunday he could remember anything and given this evidence to the coroner:

Jonathan Jeannevol, revealed he had confessed to police that he pushed Mr Blanco to his death after the actor had annoyed the Babyshambles frontman at a party in Whitechapel.

He described the confession as "the stupidest thing" he had done in his life, and said he had retracted it. "I'd lost my mind because people were doing my head in. People like that sitting there with their smug faces," he said, pointing at the family and friends of Mr Blanco.

Mr Jeannevol described how Mr Doherty asked him to "have a word" with Mr Blanco, who had arrived at the party on December 2 in what another guest described as a very hyper state. Mr Blanco was rehearsing Dario Fo's The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, a play in which he was to star as a man thrown to his death from a window, and hoped Mr Doherty would attend. "He was bugging Peter. He got so annoying."

The court also got to see some CCTV footage showing Pete Doherty hoofing it past Blanco as he lay on the ground, apparently more interested in saving his skin than helping the man. Time for heroes indeed.