Doherty Walks After 29 Days

Pete Doherty was released from Wormwood Scrubs Prison in West London May 6 after serving 29 days of a 14-week sentence.

He didn’t take long to start his individual ripple through a waiting world. After borrowing a mobile phone from a reporter to call someone to pick him up, he caused such a stir with passing motorists that a bus and lorry shunted into each other outside the prison causing a long traffic jam.

He also told the assembled media pack that he looked forward to having a rum and coke and spending some time with his pet cats.

Doherty described prison life as "a lot of gangsters and Radio 4" and showed reporters a certificate confirming that he had passed a drug test while inside.

He also showed them a journal he’d kept while inside and gave them a look at some of the doodles and sketches he did in jail.

Reports in The Sun had said Doherty, whose public battle with drug addiction has been a favourite tabloid standby, took drugs in his cell. The paper printed what it claimed to be a picture of the Babyshambles frontman doing the deed in his cell.

Doherty was given a 98-day sentence in April for breaching a probation order.

His sentence was halved, as is usual in such cases, and a further 18 days were taken off as part of a scheme introduced last summer to ease jail overcrowding.

On top of that, he got another two days off because of the time he spent in police custody before his April hearing.

"Nobody should ever come out that early," former Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe reportedly told the Sun.