Probation Chief Vincent Barron Sentenced To Prison For Distributing Child Pornography, While Setting Up Database Of Sex Offenders

A Probation Service expert who distributed child pornography while setting up a £10m Home Office database of sex offenders was sentenced to 14 months in prison yesterday.

Vincent Barron, 49, sent ten pornographic images of children, aged between five and 12, to a Scotsman he met in an internet chatroom.

Barron, of Kirk Rise, Frosterley, County Durham, pleaded guilty to the offences and was sentenced at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.

Twice-married Barron pleaded guilty in December to distributing indecent pictures of children between May and August 2005.

He was then earning £45,000 a year as an assistant chief probation officer seconded to the Home Office to establish the Violent and Sex Offender Register.

During a police interview, Barron admitted he used internet chatrooms to exchange child pornography.

When asked if he had any knowledge of the matter under investigation, he replied: “I have, through chatrooms, exchanged photographs of a sexual and pornographic nature and some of these images will have included children under the age of 13.”

The court heard that a psychiatric report placed Barron at a high risk of re-offending, because internet offending could be a powerful addiction.