Suffolk Police vow to bring online predators to justice after Matthew Coombs, former headteacher at Hartest Primary School, near Bury St Edmunds, sentenced for sending sexually explicit messages to ‘14-year-old boy’

Suffolk Police said they will do everything in their power to bring online predators to justice after a former headteacher sent sexually explicit messages to a ‘14-year-old boy’.

Matthew Coombs, 50, of Wetherden Road, Elmswell, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday.

The former headteacher at Hartest Primary School, near Bury St Edmunds, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child at an earlier hearing in December 2022.

The court heard that between February 10 and 20, 2020, Coombs sent explicit and graphic sexual messages to a police officer, posing as a 14-year-old boy called Ryan, on the Grindr dating platform.

These included reference to sexual acts and indecent images.

PC Luke Swain of Suffolk Police’s West CID team said: “Matthew Coombs knowingly engaged in sexual communications with someone he thought was a 14-year-old child.

“Police, alongside other organisations, actively work to locate and prosecute those responsible for such deplorable activities.

“We take allegations of online predatory behaviour extremely seriously and work to safeguard victims as quickly as possible. We will do everything in our power to bring offenders to justice.”