Four year jail term for Ipswich man

A man from Ipswich has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail for crimes relating to child abduction and sexual offences.

20 year old Jay Anderton (above) of Foundation Street in Ipswich was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday (Thursday 7 December) for 46 months after being convicted of four offences – two relating to child abduction and two of sexual activity with a child. It follows a guilty plea to all the offences at an earlier hearing.

At the end of June 2023 Anderton was arrested and subsequently charged with the offences. Anderton had groomed, manipulated and coerced his teenage victim into sexual activity with him since May 2023.

The alarm was raised when the victim was reported as missing in June, and so police conducted a search for her and the following day they located Anderton on the Waterfront area of Ipswich with the victim located nearby. Anderton was subsequently arrested and charged.

At court Anderson also received a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which is indefinite and he will remain on the Sex Offenders register for life.

A sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) is a court order that can be requested by the police, or court when there is a specific concern about an individual. This court order will be requested to prevent a person from engaging in a particular activity.

Examples of conditions set by the order include:

Not being allowed to visit places where it is likely there will be many children e.g. a playground in a park

No access to the internet without installed computer monitoring software

No deleting of internet history

The police are required to go to your home without giving you notice

DC Lauren Patterson from the Safeguarding Investigation Unit said:  “Anderton was someone who callously and deviously manipulated a vulnerable teenage victim and exploited this vulnerability for his personal, perverted desires. This job involved some great team working with the Child Exploitation and Gangs Team, working alongside the Safeguarding Investigations Unit in order to achieve this result and to ultimately safeguard other vulnerable children within the community. My thanks go to all my colleagues involved in securing this conviction.”

Click on theses links for more advice if you are concerned about a vulnerable child:

Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership children's website. https://www.suffolksp.org.uk/concerned/

NSPCC about preventing abuse and neglect. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/