Alexander Parkin, 45, who was lauded for his work on the popular BBC Radio 3 show Late Junction and won a string of Sony awards, admitted supplying the drug at a hearing last week after he was caught in possession on September 29.
He appeared at Kingston crown court via videolink from prison, where he has been held since his arrest, and was told he now faces a prison sentence.
His lawyer, Jonathan Hardy, said that while Parkin was admitting possession with intent to supply class A drugs and being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, he intends to dispute the scale of the prosecution’s case against him.
The court heard Parkin is HIV positive, he is losing his hearing and eyesight, suffers from an infection of the central nervous system, and requires daily injections to his spine. After his last court hearing, he was denied access to a shower for ten days due to current prison lockdown conditions in the pandemic.
The Oxford graduate was prosecuted in 2016 in the wake of the death of 18-year-old Miguel Jimenez, the boyfriend of celebrity barrister Henry Hendron.
Parkin faced a 2017 trial over claims he had been selling crystal meth, ecstasy and ‘liquid ecstasy’ GBL from his Marylebone flat, when the radio producer admitted to police he was a drug addict but denied that he had been acting as a dealer.
At his 2016 court case, Parkin’s barrister Dominic Bell said the former BBC man was “a go-to guy able to source GBL and supply it on”.
In that case, Parkin presented to the judge references from Alan Davey, the controller of BBC Radio 3, from presenter Max Reinhardt who he worked with Late Junction, and from an official from the British Embassy in Dubai.
While Parkin had supplied around £1000 of drugs to Hendron, there was no suggestion of involvement in Mr Jimenez’s death, and he was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.
Commenting on the current case, Mr Hardy conceded the court would be “looking at a custodial sentence” for Parkin, but said he intends to argument that any jail term is suspended due to Parkin’s personal circumstances.
Judge Timothy Lamb QC remanded Parkin, of Kennington, in custody until a hearing to decide disputed matters in the case on a date to be set. Parkin, who was earlier denied bail, will then be sentenced.
