pwood999 said:

operate the latch rods manually.

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You will need to turn the drivers door barrel. When the key barrel is removed you can turn the round bit which has a couple of ears on it where the barrel fitted in. This is part of the door lock mech. Then operate the latch rod to open.

More progress today. I have found a way to unlock the doors from under the bonnet, even though the car is alarmed. Tested the process on Wife's 3-door 2005, so fairly confident this will work on Son's 2004. The car still remains alarmed at this point, so the process will be to unlock doors, open drivers door, then disconnect battery & replace the lock barrel. After that I should be able to re-connect the battery & disarm using the new key.

Don't think I should put the process on an open forum, but will share via PM if anyone is stuck.

Final update to close this one off . . . . my planned process worked perfectly. Drove up to MK today armed with tools, etc. Connected my special wiring adapter, and unlocked the car doors . Opening the doors set off the alarm so disconnected battery as planned. Then door card off, and lots of fiddling to lower the latch & unbolt the handle. Replacement barrel installed & reconnected handle & latch. Finally reconnect battery & disable alarm with new key in barrel.

So now the car is accessible & drivable again . My son has a customer that does fobs, so have advised him to get this sorted asap, so he can then keep the door key for when actually needed.

For future reference: The internal lock-unlock button is definitely disabled when the car is locked with either Key or Fob, so no point in trying the door ajar using air-bag method that locksmiths propose !! Also no point in breaking glass. Neither will help.

Surprised an electronic 'unlock' didn't disarm the alarm.

Well done! Don't like breaking in when it can be done non invasively.

Could not find a disarm function. I’m just happy it worked.