Paedo firefighter used 20 aliases via legal loophole to hide his crimes & prey on unsuspecting women with new identity

A PAEDOPHILE former firefighter used as many as 20 aliases to hide his criminal past and prey on unsuspecting women with his new identity. The 50-year-old serial offender, now known as Jason Brown, repeatedly changed his name to conceal a history of sexual crimes against women and children. A disgraced former firefighter used a number of aliases to keep evading detection A brave woman exposed James Brown who had gone through a number of aliases including Barry Coe Born Barry Coe, the sick fiend adopted new personas across the country whenever he was exposed. When the disgraced firefighter was first convicted of child sex offences 12 years ago, sources close to his victims labelled him a “monster” and warned he would simply vanish and re-offend unless laws governing name changes were tightened. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Currently, offenders can change their name by deed poll, which costs roughly £50 and takes only 15 minutes online. Now, Brown’s case has reignited calls for urgent safeguards, coming amid warnings over public safety as scores of sex offenders prepare for release from prison this autumn. The convicted sex offender was finally exposed after a brave woman bravely fought to put him behind bars after discovering his true identity. Julie Purvin met the former firefighter in a Stratford-upon-Avon bar in February 2025, where he introduced himself as a father of three who had worked as a landscape gardener and karate instructor. Within a fortnight, he had declared his love, quickly moving into her home before systematically isolating her from her family, adult sons, and friends. Every Tuesday, he would disappear under the guise of visiting his ailing mother. Most read in The Sun But in reality, Brown was secretly checking in with the probation service to fulfil his sex offender notification requirements. Julie’s suspicions were first aroused when he claimed he was fighting a false sexual assault allegation made by an acquaintance, before he disturbingly simulated the alleged attack on her. After finding a hidden mobile phone alongside a SIM card wrapped in clingfilm in his pocket, she sought help from a friend to investigate his background. Although he claimed to be on trial in Essex, Julie’s research revealed he was actually appearing at Lincoln Crown Court under the name Seb Coe – facing charges of rape, sexual assault, and breaching a sexual harm prevention order. Julie told MailOnline: “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?” While he was eventually cleared of the rape charge, internet searches conducted by his now ex-partner revealed a decades-long history of serious sexual offending carried out under multiple identities. Brown was first sacked by West Midlands Fire Service after downloading pornography on a work computer, before establishing a karate club for local schools under the alias Seb Coe. He targeted underage girls by first seducing their mothers, before bombarding the teenagers with explicit messages and inappropriate requests, a court heard. In 2014, he was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court under the name Seb Coe for five and a half years after sending more than 1,600 texts to young girls, including explicit images of himself. During that trial, he was ultimately convicted of six offences against children alongside three counts of indecent exposure. When Brown was first convicted of these offences 12 years ago, the MailOnline reported that a source close to a victim warned: “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.” In March 2022, he was jailed at Lincoln Crown Court for 18 months for breaching a sexual harm prevention order four times and failing to comply with notification requirements. Just a year later, he received a 20-month sentence at Cambridge Crown Court for seven further breaches, having repeatedly attended children’s birthday parties across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire despite a strict ban on contacting young girls. Court records demonstrate he used at least five major aliases and even formally changed his first name from Seb to Jason Coe halfway through his rape trial last year. Last week, now styling himself as Jason Brown, the 50-year-old returned to Lincoln Crown Court to plead guilty to his 12th breach of a sexual harm prevention order after being caught holding hands with a nine-month-old baby girl. His sudden name change mid-prosecution prompted Judge Simon Hirst, the Recorder of Lincoln, to demand an explanation as to why the defendant’s identity had shifted once again during court proceedings. Lawyers involved in the case noted his persistent manipulation of official records, with one remarking that having cycled through multiple variations of Coe and Brown, “next he’ll be calling himself Jason Bourne”. Despite pleading guilty to the latest breach, Brown is expected to receive a community-based penalty when he is sentenced next month, further fuelling fury from campaigners over the leniency of the justice system. Rotherham’s Labour MP Sarah Champion, who has campaigned to close the loophole, said of the Brown case: “I’m disgusted at how easy it is for sex offenders to change their name to escape justice. “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. “Unless this loophole is closed, the schemes that allow us to check if someone has a past record of offences are pointless.” Official data shows the practice of offenders exploiting notification rules is widespread, with more than 11,500 registered sex offenders prosecuted for failing to notify authorities of changed information between 2019 and 2022. A further 700 sex offenders vanished from official monitoring records between 2019 and 2021, with police forces attributing a significant portion of the disappearances to untracked identity changes.