Police came knocking at Jay Coleman’s door exactly a year to the day after he had been handed a suspended prison sentence
Jay Coleman, of Waterfall Drive, aged 22(Image: Merseyside Police)
A paedophile told his mum “I’ve messed up, I’ve done it again and I’m going to jail” when police came knocking at his door. Jay Coleman continued to download depraved child abuse images within weeks of being spared prison for identical offences.
This led to him being arrested again exactly a year on from the day when he was handed the second chance which he ultimately spurned. Despite pledging to no longer own any electronic devices in order to “remove the temptation from himself” his solemn prediction to his mum has now been proved right.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Wednesday May 6, that Coleman was previously handed an eight-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months June 11 2024 for offences relating to the possession of indecent images of children. But, with Merseyside Police having received intelligence relating to the further distribution of such materials via social media, officers attended his home on Waterfall Drive in Walton on June 11 2025.
Derek Jones, prosecuting, detailed how a Samsung mobile phone was seized from Coleman at this stage, with the 22-year-old telling his mum upon his arrest: “I’ve messed up. I’ve done it again. I’m going to jail.”
When examined, the device was found to contain nine category A indecent images, those graded as showing the most serious forms of abuse.
Coleman was also found to have downloaded a further 22 category C indecent photographs and two computer generated images depicting children engaged in sexual activity. He went on to make “unusually full and frank admissions” under interview, including confessing to deleting his internet history in breach of a sexual harm prevention order he had been subjected to by the court the previous year.
Kyra Badman, defending, told the court: “Mr Coleman made admissions at the scene when police knocked on his door. He made the comments, ‘I’ve messed up, I’ve done it again, I’m going to jail’. It may well be that is the reality of today’s hearing. He is aware of that. He has brought a bag with him in the expectation that is a very real possibility.
“At the time of the commission of these offences, he had only been subject to the suspended sentence order for around a month before he started off again. The meaningful work on the previous suspended sentence order had not started at all. It makes me able, hopefully, to make the submission that, had that help started sooner, he would not be in this position.
“There is an acceptance of his sexual interest in children. He was unusually honest and open. He is very much open to help and education about his particular issues with this particular material.”
Ms Badman described her client as having “no outlet, other than caring for his mother and the computer screen in front of him” and added: “He is a socially isolated individual. He rarely leaves the house. He was left in a stressful situation. He found himself viewing more and more material online. He became entirely desensitized to what he was doing.
“The situation of waiting for this meaningful work to start went on for about three months. He started one to one therapies and group meetings. That was all going extremely well. He clearly struggles with his mental health, to the extent that there was a genuine attempt on his life, having been released from the police station.
“He has started a construction qualification. He made some genuine steps and inroads into his personal growth and wanted to stop. He decided that enough was enough. He would benefit from further assistance. He no longer has a phone or any devices. He wants to remove that temptation from himself.
“There is a risk that the duration of any sentence would be relatively short, and he would have none of the help that he has benefited from and may relapse in the same way he did in relation to these offences. He is a carer for his mother. He has been since the age of 12. She has kidney failure and significant mobility issues.”
Coleman admitted possession of indecent images of children, two counts of making indecent images, possession of prohibited images of children, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and breaching a suspended sentence. Appearing in the dock wearing a white shirt and black tie underneath a grey jacket, he was jailed for 14 months.
Sentencing, Recorder Eric Lamb said: “On that occassion, you were given a further opportunity, no doubt because of the likely impact of immediate custody upon your caring duties for your mother, because of your youth and because of the opportunity that there might be to work with you in the future. During the currency of that suspended term of imprisonment, you went on to commit exactly the same sort of offending again.
“It has been urged eloquently on your behalf by Ms Badman that, in fact, the offending occurred very quickly, before the work with you could come into effect, but, nonetheless, you were all too aware that you had been sentenced to prison for having done this in the past. You knew and were warned that any further offending would lead to the imposition of the eight months held in suspense on that occasion.
“In such circumstances, you having been left in no doubt when the suspended sentence was imposed, what it was imposed for and what would be the consequence of any further offending, that you have gone on to repeat the same conduct makes it, in my judgement, necessary that there should be an immediate custodial term in this case. There must be a downward adjustment to reflect the mental health issues that you have had, the steps you have taken to amend your mental health and the fact that you were isolated and had become desensitized.”
Coleman was also handed a new sexual harm prevention order which will run for the next decade. He will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.