A convicted paedophile has used up to 20 aliases to conceal his criminal record from new partners and the authorities.
Jason Brown, a 50-year-old former firefighter, pleaded guilty last week at Lincoln Crown Court to breaching a sexual harm prevention order for the 12th time, after being caught holding hands with a nine-month-old baby girl.
He is due to be sentenced next month.
Brown changed his name during a trial last year, where he was cleared of rape and sexual assault, to hide his past from his partner.
Name change loophole
Campaigners and police are urging the government to ban sex offenders from changing their identities, a process that currently costs about £50 and takes 15 minutes online by deed poll.
Under the Crime and Policing Act, offenders will be required to notify police seven days before changing their name, rather than three days afterwards. However, Emily Konstantas, founder of The Safeguarding Alliance, said the change was ineffective because it still relied on offenders to report themselves.
"He has targeted women and children," Konstantas said. "The ability to keep changing his name has given him a free pass."
"They get to start a new life because it is like erasing their past," she said.
Between 2019 and 2021, almost 1,500 sex offenders notified police of a name change, while records suggest another 700 failed to do so and went missing.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, said the system allowed offenders to escape justice.
"Unless this loophole is closed, the schemes that allow us to check if someone has a past record of offences are pointless," Champion said.
A Home Office spokesman said protecting the public from dangerous sexual offenders remained a top priority.
Previous convictions
Born Barry Coe, Brown was dismissed from the West Midlands Fire Service for downloading pornography on a work computer.
He adopted the name Seb Coe and in 2014 was jailed for five and a half years at Birmingham Crown Court for sending explicit messages to underage girls he targeted by seducing their mothers.
In March 2022, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for breaching his prevention order and failing to notify police of his details.
The following year, he received a 20-month sentence at Cambridge Crown Court for breaching the order by attending children's birthday parties in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Last June, he was jailed for 12 months for failing to declare he was living with a new partner, Julie Purvin.
Concealed identity
Purvin, 54, met Brown in Stratford-upon-Avon in February 2025. She said she uncovered his criminal record after a friend investigated him.
"He told me he loved me," Purvin said. "I thought he was perfect."
She said discovering the truth left her in a state of shock.
"I felt my world had fallen out. I felt violated. I kept thinking how did I get it so wrong, how could I be so naive?" she said.
Purvin is campaigning for a ban on sex offenders changing their names.
"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."
