Victims of a paedophile dog warden obsessed with young girls wept in court today as he was sent to prison for three years.

Philip Lawrence, 64, had already been jailed in 2015 for sex offences against three girls stretching back 32 years.

But when two other victims read newspaper reports about Lawrence's conviction they alerted police and another investigation was launched.

It culminated in him being jailed today at Canterbury Crown Court after admitting indecent assault and committing an act of outraging public decency.

Dominic Connolly, prosecuting, told the court the first offence involved a girl of 15 who was out walking her dog in the early 1990s when she saw Lawrence in his van, went over to speak to him and saw him committing a sex act. She ran away.

A few years later he forced another 15-year-old girl to touch him sexually in his van after parking in a remote spot.

In a statement, the first victim said that when she saw in the papers that Lawrence had been jailed for sexually abusing girls she knew she had to come forward.

“I was so terrified and I thought he would get me in his van,” she said. “The feeling I had that day has never left me. When I hear his name I go back to that day when I was a teenager.

“I thought no one would believe me. I was scared of him and what he would do. I would see him often driving around Dover in his van.”

The victim said the incident had left her over-protective of her children, especially her daughter.

“He took away my innocence. It is still really painful and causes me a lot of anxiety and nightmares..." - one of Lawrence's victims

“Before that day I thought I could trust him,” she said. “I feel I am scarred for life.”

The other victim said the impact on her had been devastating.

“When I saw the court case in the paper in 2015 it hit me like a slap in the face,” she said. “I felt sick and it took me back to when I was a girl in his van.

“He took away my innocence. It is still really painful and causes me a lot of anxiety and nightmares.”

John Fitzgerald, defending, said Lawrence felt genuine remorse and was shocked and ashamed of what he had done.

He had made progress since being released from jail in March last year.

Recorder Jonathan Davies told Lawrence: “Each of your two victims was seriously affected by what you did. I suspect it is as painful for them now as it was then.”

Lawrence, who no longer works as a dog warden, was also given a sexual harm prevention order.