A paedophile has been jailed after approaching schoolgirls at a bus stop and asking them to perform sex acts.

Joseph Kemp of Tenterden Road, Cranbrook, propositioned the children at bus stops in Tenterden last November.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday, prosecutor Martin Yale said the 33-year-old predator approached two teenagers while they were waiting for their bus.

“He offered one of the girls £20 to touch his penis,” said Mr Yale.

“He then asked the other girl, ‘Will you give me a handjob for £20?’”

Both girls reported the incident to their parents who contacted the police, but just a few days later Kemp went to another bus stop in town and offered money to two other minors.

“He said, ‘You don’t need to do anything, just watch’. He then put his hand down his trousers,” continued Mr Yale.

Kemp, committed these crimes while he was on bail for other sexual offences committed the year before.

Canterbury Crown Court heard yesterday how on March 24, 2022, Kemp began an online chat with someone he thought was a 12-year-old-girl, but was actually an undercover police officer.

In messages read aloud in court, Kemp encouraged the undercover officer to meet him and described various sex acts they could perform on him in exchange for £200.

He then asked for indecent pictures of them and their classmates.

On June 7, 2022, police officers went to Kemp’s home address and arrested him.

On his phone and computer, officers found hundreds of indecent images of children as young as eight, as well as extreme pornography involving animals.

He pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communications with a child, possession of indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography, two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and two counts of attempting to engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Defending, Emma Kutner argued that at the time of the offending Kemp was very lonely and suffering from depression and anxiety but Judge Simon Taylor KC rejected this as a valid excuse.

He said: “The point is it’s very easy for judges to accept that and I understand why you advance it.

“But it’s not very fair to people in the community who experience anxiety or depression and don’t go around committing sexual offences against children.

“It is a characteristic of the kinds of people that commit these kinds of offences that they are lonely and spend too much time on their computers.”

Ms Kutner said that Kemp has been “doing remarkably well in prison”, having been abstinent from alcohol and engaging in social interaction.

But the judge ruled he should remain behind bars for the protection of the public.

He said: “It’s plain to see that during the period of the first offences you were finding yourself in a rut.

“You were drinking far too much, smoking cannabis, so you went out - actually you stayed in - and committed these offences.

‘I would like to praise the girls for their courage in reporting Kemp’s crimes...’

“Thereafter, having been taken to court, you effectively committed contact offences - speaking to real children in the street.

“The fact that you committed these offences while out on bail shows a disregard for court orders.”

Kemp was sentenced to three years and seven months in custody and will be subject to a sexual notification requirement for 15 years.

Speaking after the hearing, DC Ryan O’ Hagan said: “We are determined to protect people from sexual predators such as Kemp and I am pleased he is now behind bars.

“I would like to praise the girls for their courage in reporting Kemp’s crimes, and I would urge anyone who believes they or someone they know has been the victim of an offence to report it to the police at the first opportunity.

“We will work to bring offenders to justice and protect you and others.”