"Most of the men who come here are married, and with kids. It makes me sick. They come in here and tell me what they want to do with me and they've kissed their wife and children with that mouth."

Some of these men, most of them middle-aged, come back week after week, and have been in a relationship for decades, one north Kent prostitute told our undercover reporter.

She even fell in love with one married man over a period of several months, but a pang of conscience finally took him back to his wife, never to visit her bedroom again.

Her experience does not fit the stereotype of single, lonely, sexually inexperienced men propping up the sex industry, but research suggests it is most certainly the reality.

Boyfriends, husbands, fathers and even grandfathers are flicking to the classified section of a local newspaper, dialling a number, jumping in the car, handing over a bundle of cash and then jumping into bed with complete strangers.

In the latest of our features on north Kent's sex industry, we take a look at research suggesting more than half of punters are in a relationship. And some claim to have bedded prostititues on more than 2,000 occasions.

The research, published in December 2009 by women's charity Eaves, which supports women trying to escape prostitution, found almost all sex bought (96 per cent) was inside places such as "massage parlours" or brothels.

The charity, which says most men find these women via personal ads in local newspapers, recommends taking action against those publishing these ads, even calling for an outright ban.

The KM Group, which runs the Gravesend and Dartford Messenger Series, and the Messenger Extra, refuses to carry this type of advertising.

The Gravesend Reporter and Dartford Times, part of Kentish Times Newspapers, publishes several adverts for sex lines, escort agencies and massage parlours every week.

In the past three weeks, the Messenger has revealed many of these offer a thin veneer for their part in the sex industry, promoting prostitutes in Gravesend and Dartford near homes and schools.

Such adverts, the Eaves research suggests, could be pointing to women who have been trafficked into this country and forced into prostitution.

In the charity's survey, more than half the 103 interviewees said they had bought sex from a woman they knew was under the control of a pimp, some of them describing beatings and forced sex.

One in four of the men asserted that the concept of rape does not apply to women in prostitution.