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| Ronnie Barker's son Adam Barker jailed for indecent images | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Comedian Ronnie Barker's son has been jailed for 12 months for making indecent images of children. | Comedian Ronnie Barker's son has been jailed for 12 months for making indecent images of children. |
| Adam Barker, 44, of no fixed address, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court last month and admitted 20 counts. | Adam Barker, 44, of no fixed address, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court last month and admitted 20 counts. |
| Barker, the youngest son of the television comic, was first arrested in June 2003 as part of a police operation targeting people accessing indecent images of children on the internet. | Barker, the youngest son of the television comic, was first arrested in June 2003 as part of a police operation targeting people accessing indecent images of children on the internet. |
| A computer seized from his home in Ealing contained thousands of images. | A computer seized from his home in Ealing contained thousands of images. |
| Barker then went on the run for eight years, living in Hungary. | |
| During that time he missed the funeral of his mother and his father, who died in 2005 aged 76. | |
| The court heard that of the 1,675 images and videos, 92 were graded level four - the second highest in seriousness. | |
| The court heard 17 of the 20 counts related to pre-teen boys. | |
| Barker obtained the images between January 1999 and June 2003, the court heard. | |
| He paid for them with his credit card, which alerted police who raided his west London home in June 2003. | |
| 'Unquantifiable distress' | |
| Ravinder Johal, prosecuting, said Barker confessed to police there were "some things on the computer". | |
| Barker was bailed to June 2004 and escaped to Hungary. | |
| He wrote his parents a letter saying he was going away and his absence caused "unquantifiable distress" to his family, the court heard. | |
| Mr Johal said said Barker only came back to Britain after his funds ran out. | |
| Simon Ray, Barker's barrister, said his client had used his "lonely and isolated self-imposed exile" in Budapest to increase his self-discipline and will power. | |
| He said Barker unequivocally accepted his wrongdoing, adding he had not known of his parents' deaths "until relatively recently". | |
| Judge Rosa Dean told Barker his offending "contributed to the degradation and continuing abuse of children". | |
| Barker was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years, banned from working with children and subjected to a Sexual Offenders Prevention Order with conditions governing his use of the internet. | |
| As an actor, Adam Barker had small parts in films including Shakespeare in Love and Tomorrow Never Dies. | As an actor, Adam Barker had small parts in films including Shakespeare in Love and Tomorrow Never Dies. |
| He has also appeared in TV shows such as Casualty, Monarch of the Glen and Wycliffe. | He has also appeared in TV shows such as Casualty, Monarch of the Glen and Wycliffe. |