Presenter Barry Bethell had met children while dressed as Santa Claus three months before he was arrested for child sex and pornography offences, it has been revealed.

He had worked for a day at the Santa’s Grotto at Ashford’s Park Mall Shopping Centre during Christmas-time 2007.

This was while his record was still clean and before his behaviour had been revealed.

And safety measures in place at the shopping centre meant the celebrity, now convicted of child sex and pornography offences, could never have been left alone with a child.

Centre marketing manager Natalie Price said: "Legally he had to have one person in the grotto with him, and a child had to be accompanied by a parent.

"He also had CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks and his record was clean.

"We now have a sense of shock as to what happened. This is not something you would expect."

Bethell had worked at the centre’s grotto in a one-off stint in November 24, 2007, with two elves, on the day Park Mall’s Christmas lights were switched on.

As a general safety precaution for these events, at least one of his elves had to be with him in the grotto.

The DJ and TV ad man, 66, from Kimberley Grove, Seasalter, Whitstable, was arrested in February 2008 and has been in custody since.

Last Thursday he was convicted of one charge sexually assaulting a young girl and three of taking indecent photographs of children but cleared of another charge of sexual assault.

He had pleaded not guilty at Canterbury Crown Court to the charges.

It was Bethell’s second trial, the first having collapsed in November 2008.

He remains in custody until he is sentenced on June 5.

Bethell’s media work includes promoting the Slim Fast diet drink in a national advertising campaign in the early 1990s.

He also worked on radio stations and appeared on TV shows such as The Danny Baker Show in 1994 and After They Were Famous in 2002.