British ministers are facing renewed pressure to close a legal loophole that allows registered sex offenders, including convicted child sex offenders, to change their names and potentially make it harder for the public to discover their criminal past.
The Daily Mail reported that Jason Brown, a 50-year-old former firefighter, adopted as many as 20 aliases over the years, repeatedly reinventing himself after convictions and entering relationships with women who were unaware of his history.
Brown, who has been described as a “danger to women and children,” was back in court last week after pleading guilty to the 12th breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, having been caught holding hands with a nine-month-old baby girl. During the proceedings, it emerged that he had even changed his name while the prosecution was underway.
The case has renewed criticism of British rules that allow registered sex offenders to change their names by deed poll, a process that costs roughly 50 pounds and can take about 15 minutes online. Offenders are required to notify police, but campaigners argue that the system still relies heavily on offenders complying with those requirements.
When Brown was first convicted of child sex offenses in 2014, a source close to one of his victims warned that he could simply disappear and start again after leaving prison. “We are just hoping the system is robust enough to deal with him when he is released from prison, so that he does not disappear and start this all over again,” the source said at the time. “He is very charismatic and he does not look like a monster, but he is a monster.
“He has moved all around the country in the past and he has changed his name. That cannot be allowed to happen again.”
Despite years of warnings and promises from politicians, campaigners say the loophole has remained open.
More than 11,500 registered sex offenders were prosecuted between 2019 and 2022 for failing to notify authorities of changes to their information, according to figures cited by the Daily Mail.
Records also suggest that another 700 sex offenders went missing from monitoring between 2019 and 2021, many after changing their identities. In one police force alone, more than 500 offenders reportedly changed their names within 23 months.
The case comes days after leaders of every police force in the UK wrote to the prime minister raising concerns over “public protection, victim confidence and community safety” following government plans to release some offenders early and reduce the use of short prison sentences.
That policy could mean thousands of offenders who previously might have received custodial sentences instead being managed in the community through measures including electronic monitoring.
The Labour government promised tighter restrictions on sex offenders under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, but campaigners argue the changes remain insufficient because the responsibility for reporting a new identity still rests with the offender.
‘Sex offenders are exploiting this loophole’
Emily Konstantas, founder of The Safeguarding Alliance, said Brown’s case demonstrated how easily offenders could use name changes to deceive members of the public. “He has targeted women and children. The ability to keep changing his name has given him a free pass,” she said. “This man represents a risk to every woman and child. This case is shocking on so many levels. It just makes my blood boil.”
Konstantas said her organization has campaigned for eight years for tougher restrictions. “We have been campaigning for eight years for a ban and it is so upsetting that had our reforms been implemented, he would never have the ability to do this,” she said. “Sex offenders are exploiting this loophole and the Government is well aware of the issue. The safety of children, women and vulnerable adults should never be a secondary concern.”
She dismissed the latest legal changes as inadequate because they still depend on offenders reporting their new names. “It’s lip service,” she said. “There is no more protection for people because this loophole will continue to be exploited.
“They get to start a new life because it is like erasing their past. How many children have to be sexually abused, how many women have to be duped into marrying sex offenders, for the Government to take action to protect the public?”
Labour MP Sarah Champion of Rotherham, who has campaigned to close the loophole, also condemned the situation. “I’m disgusted at how easy it is for sex offenders to change their name to escape justice,” she said.
“This gaping loophole needs to be closed. I’ve shared my horror about this safeguarding risk with countless ministers, all of whom promise to act, but still offenders are exploiting the system.” Champion added: “Unless this loophole is closed, the schemes that allow us to check if someone has a past record of offences are pointless.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Registered sex offenders are required to notify the police of any change of name, and failure to do so is a criminal offence. “Protecting the public from dangerous sexual offenders remains a top priority, and we are strengthening the powers available to police through the Crime and Policing Act 2026.”
‘He told me he loved me. I thought he was perfect’
For Julie Purvin, the debate over the law became intensely personal. Just 14 days after she met Brown, he told her he loved her. Purvin, a divorced mother of two, believed she had found the man of her dreams when the former firefighter looked into her eyes and said the words.
“He told me he loved me. I thought ‘oh my God, I feel the same,’” Purvin recalled. “I thought he was perfect. I got swayed along. I was so happy.”
Julie Purvin
(Photo: dailymail)
The relationship began after a chance meeting at a bar in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire in February 2025.
Brown showered her with compliments and told her he was a father of three who had worked in several professions, including as a firefighter, landscape gardener and karate instructor, and was then working in sales for a construction company.
A week after they met, he appeared at the beauty salon Purvin owns with flowers for Valentine’s Day. Within 10 days she had introduced him to friends and family. Two weeks after they first met, he declared his love. Soon after moving into her home, however, Brown began finding ways to distance Purvin from her family, including her adult sons, and her friends.
Every Tuesday, he disappeared on the pretext of visiting his sick mother. In reality, according to the Daily Mail, Brown was secretly reporting to the probation service as part of requirements linked to his status as a sex offender.
Purvin initially remained unaware of his past. Brown told her he was fighting what he described as a false allegation of sexual assault by a woman he knew. Purvin later discovered a mobile phone she had not known about, along with a SIM card wrapped in clingfilm in his pocket. At that point, she said, “the penny dropped.”
Frightened, she turned to a friend for help, and together they began researching Brown. Purvin believed he was standing trial in Essex. Instead, she discovered that a man using the name Seb Coe was appearing at Lincoln Crown Court on charges of rape, sexual assault and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The man was Brown.
When Purvin searched the name Seb Coe online, she discovered that he had previously been convicted of multiple sexual offenses under different identities.
Brown was born Barry Coe. According to the Daily Mail, he was dismissed by West Midlands Fire Service for downloading pornography onto a work computer. He later began using the name Seb Coe and established a karate club for local schools in the West Midlands.
In 2014, he was jailed for five and a half years after sending more than 1,600 messages in an effort to seduce underage girls. At Birmingham Crown Court, he was described as a “sex pest” and exhibitionist. The court heard that he had formed relationships with the mothers of victims before bombarding their teenage daughters with messages, including an explicit photograph of himself.
In one case, Brown told a 14-year-old girl that he wanted a threesome with her and had fantasized about having sex with her and pop star Rihanna. After the girl reported him, police discovered he had sent similar messages to two other young girls.
He was convicted of three sexual acts involving young girls, three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and three counts of indecent exposure after exposing himself to neighbors through a bedroom window.
Repeated breaches and repeated names
The warning issued after his 2014 conviction proved prescient. In March 2022, Brown was jailed for 18 months at Lincoln Crown Court for four breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and failing to comply with notification requirements.
A year later, Cambridge Crown Court jailed him for 20 months after he admitted seven further breaches of the order. Those offenses included repeatedly attending children’s birthday parties in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire despite being banned from contact with young girls.
Court records cited by the Daily Mail show that Brown used at least five names. During a rape trial last year, he even changed his first name from Seb to Jason Coe. The jury heard allegations that in November 2021 he grabbed a woman after she refused to kiss him, sexually assaulted her and then raped her while pinning her against a wall.
Jason Brown
(Photo: dailymail)
Brown was ultimately acquitted of those allegations.
When Purvin discovered the truth, she said she was overwhelmed. “I was hysterical,” she recalled. She sent Brown a message while he was waiting for the jury to return in the rape case. “He phoned me. His voice was unrecognisable. He was so cold, he demanded to know, ‘How did you get this information?’”
Purvin said Brown appeared angry. “I was very frightened by that point. I was heartbroken, devastated. I felt my world had fallen out. I felt violated,” she said. “I kept thinking how did I get it so wrong, how could I be so naive?”
Terrified that Brown might return from court and force his way into her home, she contacted police. She was later told that he had been acquitted of all charges in that case, while an officer involved described Brown as a “dangerous man who was very clever, very charming” and who had used numerous aliases.
'Next he’ll be calling himself Jason Bourne'
Brown returned to Lincoln Crown Court last week over what prosecutors said was his 12th breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order after he was found holding hands with a nine-month-old baby girl.
Judge Simon Hirst questioned why the defendant, who had been charged as Seb Coe, was now “styling himself as Jason Brown.” No explanation was provided.
One lawyer remarked: “He has been Seb Coe, Jason Brown, next he’ll be calling himself Jason Bourne.” Brown pleaded guilty and is expected to receive a community sentence when he is sentenced next month, according to the Daily Mail.
Purvin sat in the public gallery fighting back tears. “The whole thing has been a disgrace,” she said. “I feel so let down by the whole criminal justice system.”
Purvin also said she felt badly failed when she first alerted her local police force after discovering Brown’s identity. According to her account, one male officer told her: “Don’t worry about it.”
“A male officer said effectively, ‘Oh dear, you should never have got into a relationship with someone like that,’” she recalled. “They said, ‘Love is blind. Don’t worry about it.’ I felt sick. I was scared to go home because he might be there. It was passed off as if it was nothing.”
She said she was initially advised only to change her locks and install security cameras. Determined to protect other women, Purvin complained that police were not taking her concerns seriously. Within 24 hours of contacting the police watchdog, officers came to her home to take a formal statement. One officer told her police believed Brown had used as many as 20 aliases.
Warwickshire Police later arrested Brown for breaching sex offender notification requirements by failing to declare that he was in a relationship with Purvin and living with her. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison in June but was released after serving six months, according to the Daily Mail. Purvin said police did not inform her he had been released until four months later.
She is now campaigning to stop sex offenders from being able to change their names so easily and says she wants other women to know who Brown is. “It makes my blood boil,” she said. “It is disgraceful how he can be allowed to change his name to something different time and time again.
“No one warned me about him because police didn’t know he had changed his name. It is an absolute joke.”
For Purvin, the central question is how women and children can be protected when an offender can repeatedly adopt a new identity. “How can women be protected when sex offenders are doing this?” she said. “The law needs to change to prevent sex offenders changing their name so easily. We need to protect future victims.
“I feel it’s important to warn women out there who may let this man into their lives, into their homes where they may have daughters or young children.
“I want him to be exposed so he can’t hide any more, and he can’t ruin anyone else’s life. It’s about protecting other women from him, because I don’t think the police are going to do it.”