Drug row man 'wiped out'

Hi-tech revenge has been taken on Pete Doherty's former manager, who was accused of selling pictures of model Kate Moss snorting cocaine.

Doherty's record label has ordered that James Mullord be obscured in his latest video.

In the film, obtained by the Evening Standard, Mr Mullord's face has been pixelated as he and Doherty are shown entering Trafalgar Square for an antiracism concert.

The video, to promote the new Babyshambles single Albion, which goes on sale on 28 November, also shows glimpses of Moss with Doherty, embracing on the edge of a river bank.

She is deliberately hidden from view but sources suggest their relationship is still very much on, despite the furore over the pictures taken of her snorting cocaine in September. The publication of the images lost her contracts worth millions.

Mr Mullord, 36, strongly denies setting up Moss and selling the images to the Daily Mirror for a six-figure sum.

The model has left an Arizona clinic to resume her modelling career while the hunt goes on for those who betrayed her. The Babyshambles album, Down In Albion, went on sale yesterday and is expected to enter high in the charts.

At the end of the video, Doherty is seen walking into the distance with his former manager.

Mr Mullord told the Evening Standard: "It is annoying. It is so petty." He said Doherty has given him assurances he was not responsible for ordering his face to be erased. Instead Mr Mullord is blaming the band's record label, Rough Trade. "Pete didn't see the final cut until it was too late," he said. "That is what I have been told anyway. Pete says it is a pain in the arse but it's too late." Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade, refused to comment.

Video maker Roger Pomphrey said the company had made the request. He said: "I didn't want to know why because I don't want to get involved. I think the record company did it believing it would be a feather in their cap keeping Pete happy. But Pete isn't a vindictive person and I don't think he would have ordered it."

Suspicion had fallen on Mr Mullord after he admitted purchasing audio surveillance equipment two weeks before Moss was captured on film.

He popped into the studio on 6 September to check on the progress of the new album, but was not present when the filming of Moss took place. In the next few days he went to France and then to Scotland.

He returned to London to deny accusations of his involvement, telling the Standard: "I considered Pete the closest person on the planet other than my mother."

He believes he is the victim of a concerted smear campaign and says he had bought the surveillance equipment to spy on others in the Doherty camp whom he feared may have been disloyal.