Mystery surrounds the death of a 24-year-old paedophile in his prison cell. Jacob Bean, convicted of grooming a 10-year-old girl via Snapchat and WhatsApp, was found unresponsive at HMP Rochester. Efforts to revive him failed, and he died shortly after noon on September 7.
Bean, previously of Chartham near Canterbury, was serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence which started in November last year. He was jailed for sending child abuse videos and explicit images to his young victim, encouraging her to perform sexual acts.
Heartbreakingly, at his sentencing, the girl’s father expressed his anguish, saying, “As a father, you never want anything bad to happen to your children. Right now, I feel like I have failed.”
Just days before his death, Bean reported feeling unwell with chest pains and was briefly hospitalised before returning to his cell. The coroner has opened an inquest, although Bean’s cause of death remains undetermined for now. A pre-inquest review is scheduled for March next year.
Upon release, Bean would have faced indefinite sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order. As is standard procedure, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation following his death.
Stay tuned for updates as more details emerge.