A "dangerous and predatory" school bus driver is behind bars again for historic sexual abuse after two women were prompted to reveal their childhood ordeals by a KentOnline report.

Canterbury Crown Court heard they came forward after reading of Graham Kemp's conviction in June 2018 for sexually assaulting two young girls.

Jurors were told the article led to the "unlocking" of horrific details they had kept secret for as long as five decades.

But when arrested, 76-year-old former Herne Bay resident Kemp "flatly denied" the accusations and claimed the women had "jumped on the bandwagon".

He also callously branded their accounts given to police, and then repeated at his two-week trial last month, as "absolute cobblers and compensation-driven".

One was "promiscuous", he told the jury, and had "stalked and pestered" him until he "gave in to what she wanted" when she was no longer under-age.

As far as the other victim was concerned, Kemp said they did no more than "play-fight".

But the jury saw through his lies and on Tuesday, he was unanimously convicted of six offences of indecent assault, one of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 and one of rape, all committed between October 1966 and March 1987.

At the start of his trial, prosecutor Oliver Dunkin told the court Kemp, whose last known address was in Gosselin Street, Whitstable, had been "a serial sexual abuser for many, many years".

Referring to how the KentOnline report about his previous conviction triggered the women to contact police, Mr Dunkin said: "In June 2018, Graham Kemp was sent to prison at this court for sexual offences in relation to two different girls in the 90s and early part of the millennium.

"As you will readily appreciate, that happening attracts press attention, and the local press attention that received was directly and indirectly the trigger for these two ladies, as they now are, to come forward and tell their story of being victims when they were girls."

One abused in the late 1960s was said to have "broken down" when she learnt the three-times wed, former bus and taxi driver had gone on to abuse other young girls, and told police she felt "terrible guilt" she had not come forward sooner.

“The local press attention was directly and indirectly the trigger for these two ladies to come forward...”

Mr Dunkin said however that as a child she had been left "scared and intimidated" by Kemp, as well as "hard-wired" by him into thinking no one would believe her.

The second victim also saw the article and, having confided in an old school friend, alerted police in June 2019.

Her account of the abuse she suffered at Kemp's hands was "extremely detailed", said the prosecutor, and resulted in a recorded interview lasting four hours.

She described how in the 1980s when he was her school bus driver he had groomed her with compliments, praise and gifts, before taking on the "twisted" role of "sex teacher".

The prosecutor told the jury it was "classic behaviour by a clearly predatory and dangerous man".

"He groomed her under a general sort of guise as teacher. Teacher in what? Teacher in sex," said Mr Dunkin. "He became her self-appointed confidante… He latched on and preyed on her."

The court heard the girl was abused in various locations, including his car, in woods, on the back seat of the bus while still wearing her uniform, and at his matrimonial home.

He also bought the schoolgirl a ring he made her wear as a symbol of commitment.

Kemp, however, maintained when giving evidence that he had not abused either of his accusers. He even claimed, despite his previous offending, to have no sexual interest in children.

The court heard that at the time of his deviant behaviour with the second victim, Kemp was married to his third wife, who was about 16 years his junior.

She too had been a passenger on his school bus from a young age - something Kemp told the jury was "purely coincidental". They started living together when she was 17 and married three years later.

It was in 1987 following the discovery by his then-pregnant wife of the receipt for the "commitment" ring that Kemp and the girl were confronted.

Her father later complained to the bus company about his behaviour, which resulted in his sacking and him becoming a cabbie.

But giving evidence last week, Kemp refuted the prosecution case that he had "groomed and raped" the schoolgirl, adding: "I didn't do anything wrong other than cheat on my wife."

Details of his previous offending were heard by the jury but when Kemp was cross-examined about it by Mr Dunkin, he retorted: "Am I being tried again?" before asserting his innocence in respect of one girl, who he had met when she was a passenger in his taxi, and saying that the abuse of the other had been "a stupid mistake".

Ironically, his jail term of five and a half years expired during his trial. But he has now been remanded in custody until he is sentenced by Recorder Michael Turner on December 7.