Ex-BBC producer, 45, invited friends to chemsex parties, court hears

Alexander Parkin, 45, worked on the popular BBC Radio 3 show Late Junction and won nine Sony awards for his work

A former BBC radio producer befriended clients of his interior design business and sold crystal meth to them at chemsex parties, a court heard.

Alexander Parkin, 45, who worked on the popular BBC Radio 3 show Late Junction and won nine Sony awards for his work, was first convicted of drug dealing in 2016. 

At the time, he admitted selling GBL to celebrity barrister Henry Hendron, 35, after the death of the lawyer’s 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez that January. 

Parkin was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work and lost his job at the BBC two days after his admission. Hendron was ordered to do 140 hours of unpaid work.

The ex-producer also faced a trial in 2017 over claims he had been selling crystal meth, ecstasy and ‘liquid ecstasy’ GBL from his Marylebone flat – but was cleared. 

However, he has now admitted possession of crystal meth with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug after 123g was found in his flat on September 29 last year. 

Kingston Crown Court heard the Oxford graduate now has an interior design business, and befriends clients before inviting them to his parties and selling chemsex drugs at ‘cost prices’.

It was said he was selling crystal meth for around £25 a gram and not making a profit.

Experts analysed Parkin’s phone messages in which he used drug slang including ‘Fanta’ for MDMA, ‘water’ for GBL, and ‘tea’ for crystal meth.

Jonathan Hardy, defending, said: ‘One of his character traits is warmth, love and generosity towards others. That may seem alien in the drug world.’

Judge Jonathan Davies replied: ‘This is exceptional, doing it out of generosity.’ 

The court heard how police arrived at Parkin’s south London flat after finding evidence on another suspect’s phone that he had been drug dealing.

Parkin previously admitted selling GBL to celebrity barrister Henry Hendron, 35, after the death of the lawyer’s 18-year-old boyfriend Miguel Jimenez (seen together) that January

A specialist search team found 123g of methamphetamine hidden in the flat ‘within home-made concealments’.

Prosecutor David Povall said: ‘It is accepted that Mr Parkin himself is a drug user, an addict.

‘The people he engaged with are not only known to Mr Parkin but many of them are known to each other as well.

‘It is a networked supply situation which takes place within the individual’s own social lives.’

The prosecutor said there was ‘some’ financial motive but there were no accounts to estimate a profit.

Parkin’s lawyer said the drugs were not sold for profit but for ‘pleasure’ at sex parties because his client is a ‘party man’.

He said: ‘The defendant can now be recognised as someone who supplied only to friends. He did not seek to make a profit beyond his own personal re-investment.

‘In general terms my client supplied to those who he trusted and had a degree of emotional if not physical intimacy, and it was very much taken in the confines of his home.’

He added: ‘I do present this defendant as someone who is exceptional in his generosity of spirit. In his abandonment of profit and winning friends and bringing them into his home for their special benefit.

‘His benevolence and his accepted skill in managing to source drugs wholesale and hold those sex parties for the pleasure of his friends, means the pleasure is the profit. 

‘If the pleasure is the profit your honour may now distinguish this from those who want gold watches and fancy cars.’

Judge Davies adjourned sentencing until March 1.