Firstly, Blake Fielder-Civil’s sentence has shown that you can’t go round violently attacking pub landlords in the face; and that if you do, you definitely can’t try buying their silence with great big wads of your wife’s cash.

Most of all, though, Blake Fielder-Civil’s 27-month jail sentence shows that you’ll still get lumbered with a giant stretch in prison even if you get Amy Winehouse to bellow your name in public every six or seven seconds. Speaking of that, we’ve got another 27 months of that. Thanks, the British justice system. Thanks a lot.

These last nine months have been hellish. They’ve been an unrelenting torture, the likes of which will rarely come round again. That’s because Amy Winehouse’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil has been incarcerated for nine months. And it’s been agony.

Not for Blake Fielder-Civil, who has been plunged into a nightmarish stay in a squalid prison for those nine months. And not for Amy Winehouse, who’s slowly been unravelling to the point where she’s now nothing more than a violent drug addict constantly on the brink of death. No, we’re talking about us.

Nine months we’ve had of listening to Amy Winehouse bellow the word “Blake!” when she’s singing her songs or staggering around Camden off her face on whatever substances she’s into these days. Blake Blake Blake, that’s all we ever bloody hear. And it’s fairly annoying, we don’t mind telling you. We definitely have it worse than Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil put together.

And it’s not going to stop until October 2010, because Blake Civil-Fielder has finally been sentenced for his crime of getting trashed on booze and cocaine, smashing up a pub landlord’s head until he needed a metal plate inserted to hold his face together and then offering him £200,000 to flee the country or change his story. And he’s been given 27 sodding months. The Independent reports:

Judge David Radford told Fielder-Civil he had behaved in a “gratuitous, cowardly and disgraceful” way. Fielder-Civil, who had looked calm and relaxed throughout the hearing, showed little emotion as the sentence was passed. But as he was taken down to the cells by court staff at the end of the hearing he looked up and smiled at friends and family in the front row of the crammed public gallery and mouthed “see you soon”.

Although 27 months sounds like quite a long time – in which Blake Fielder-Civil will miss both Albania joining NATO and the end of the Swedish pharmacy monopoly – in reality he’s already served nine of those on remand, so he could be out by Christmas.

Still, though, the next few months are going to be especially difficult on Amy Winehouse. Being without her husband has been tortuous enough as it is, and she’d been publicly pinning her hopes on his release today, so those around her must be fearing for her safety at the moment.

Will Blake’s sentence throw her back into the drug-drenched miasma she’s been struggling to recover from? Will it cripple her productivity as an artist even further? Worst of all, does it mean she’s going to get off with another ancient member of Babyshambles? Christ, let’s hope not. That poor girl has been through enough as it is.

Fielder Civil, 26, has admitted on June 20, 2006, he did indeed assault James King.

Obviously, it isn’t the James King who does those movie reviews for Radio 1 that we’re referring to as, in the eyes of any judge, assaulting him would be no crime at all.

The James King we speak of is the landlord of Macbeth’s pub in London, and Fielder-Civil has also pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the cause of justice by offering James King money in return for him dropping the allegations as well as leaving the country.

This will no doubt be great news for Amy Winehouse who, it is has been alleged, wants her husband – who she promised to stand by till death does ‘em part – to remain in jail for as long as he can.

Fielder-Civil will be sentenced next month, after the trial of his co-defendants is expected to finish.

According to UK sentencing guidelines, Blake can expect to spend about three years in jail for the GBH offence, as well as fined and/or more time in jail for the justice perverting. He was arrested seven months ago to the day, back in 9th November 2007, but was denied bail and remains on remand. Any sentencing will take this in to consideration.

Amy Winehouse didn’t bother turning up to Snaresbrook Crown Court to see Blake plead guilty. A ‘family friend’ told People:

She is obsessional about him. She does the same thing about visiting him in prison. She means to go and then she has a bad night and turns up late and they don’t let her in. They don’t mess around there [at London's Pentonville Prison].

Quite often when you are told the quote is from a ‘source’ or ‘family friend’ you’d do well to be quite cynical regarding the truthfulness of it, but the use of the word ‘obsessional’ here confirms beyond any doubt that this is a friend of Amy Winehouse.

The friend went on to explain how Amy is handling the news:

This isn’t Amy’s biggest problem. She’s a smart girl and she’s such a great talent and she’s strong. Nobody can help her at this point until she decides to help herself.

And, once again, no friend of Blake has spoken up to defend him. But all that matters is that Amy is definitely alright.

Phew.