Government weighs up closing sex offender name change loophole

Government weighs up closing sex offender name change loophole The government has been urged to close a loophole which allows sex offenders to change their names - Bookmark The Government is considering closing a legal loophole that allows sex offenders to change their names to conceal their criminal pasts. It comes after a woman who was unknowingly dating a convicted paedophile branded the loophole an “absolute joke”. She accused ministers of putting the matter “on the back burner” and said they are failing to protect women by not dealing with it. As first reported by the Daily Mail, convicted sex offender Jason Brown changed his name to hide his criminal past and start new relationships. The former firefighter reinvented himself after every conviction, and may have used as many as 20 different aliases, the Mail reported. He was first prosecuted 12 years ago, and has convictions for sexual acts against children, according to the newspaper. The 50-year-old of Peterborough appeared at Lincoln Crown Court last week accused of breaching a sexual harm prevention order, court documents show. On Monday, Downing Street said it would be “looking at” the issue of offenders changing their names. A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “Registered sex offenders are required to notify the police of any change of name. Failing to do so is a crime, and anyone who commits this crime should be expected to face the full force of the law. “If we need to strengthen the rule around this, we will, and it is something we are looking at.” Registered sex offenders are already required to tell the police about any change of name, but the onus is on them to do so. Campaigners have called for sex offenders to be banned from changing their name by deed poll. Julie Purvin, 54, said Brown was “charming” when she first met him in 2025, and that she had no reason to suspect he had a criminal past. The beauty salon owner told the Press Association: “I met him in a bar in Stratford-Upon-Avon, he told me his name was Jason Brown and that he’d moved to the area to look after his mum. He said he was an ex-firefighter working for a construction company. He was just so charming… he bowled me over with his charisma and the way he was. “But he was very full on from day dot. He phoned me and messaged me as soon as I got home, messaged me the following morning, asked to take me out for dinner, and he literally from that moment on, saw me every single day for the time that we were in a relationship. “I was probably a little bit vulnerable at the time because I was on my own, and then all of a sudden, this good-looking guy comes into your life and just makes you feel like, wow, this is my happy ever after. “Everyone that met him, my friends, my family, my work colleagues. Everybody was like, Wow, he’s gorgeous, he’s lovely and seems a real genuine guy.” She said Brown later decided to tell her he had an ongoing court case in Essex, and that a woman who wanted money for drugs had invented accusations against him. He then told her the court case had been moved to Lincoln Crown Court, and she agreed to give him a lift there. During that time, a friend she had told about Brown’s court case became suspicious, and decided to search the court listings. The friend discovered that a man called Jason Coe was facing a rape charge at Lincoln. “She’d gone on to the Lincoln website and found Jason Coe, and it was on a rape charge, and she was like, Jason Coe, his name’s Jason Brown. “She Googled Jason Coe, and of course it came up straight away that he’d been prosecuted. He’d been in prison for sexually assaulting girls under the age of 16. When she showed me I just felt sick.” When Ms Purvin confronted Brown, he told her he would discuss it with her after the court case. “I just said do not contact me ever again,” she continued. “I can never explain how scared I felt. “My children came over, they got all his stuff and put it in his car because his car was at my house, and we drove it and left it outside the police station.” Urging ministers to step in and take action, she said: “I think the loophole in the law is an absolute joke. “These guys come out of prison and change their names, move where they live and continue behaving in the same way, it’s shocking. “I’ve been told that they are in the process of doing something about it, but it’s been put on the back burner. I questioned this over a year ago, and we’re still nowhere further forward with it. “He could now change his name again and start all over, and there’s nothing I can do about that. “It’s not acceptable… I just feel so helpless. The law isn’t protecting women.”