A "wicked" paedophile who begged to be locked up and have the key thrown away for the abuse of several children has been given his wish - David Mason was sentenced to an indefinite term of imprisonment for public protection.

A judge told him: "So long as you have these urges, and they seem to be well entrenched in you, I very much doubt it will ever be safe for you to be released into the community."

The bearded and balding 55-year-old will not be considered for parole until he has served seven years.

But Judge Andrew Patience QC stressed: "If things remain as they are now, the fact that date comes will be of no significance."

Maidstone Crown Court heard Mason raped and sexually abused two of his six victims while giving them art lessons at his home in Maidstone.

He then fraudulently obtained a fresh National Insurance number and used a different name to escape detection. But he eventually confessed to police.

"He effectively said he was a danger to children and wanted the police to lock him up and, in his own words, throw away the key," said prosecutor Tom Dunn.

Mason, of Cambridge Crescent, Maidstone, admitted 24 charges involving rape and sexual assault and obtaining property by deception. Mr Dunn said Mason met one girl through his involvement with a youth centre using the name David Matthews. She also visited his home.

While officers were investigating another allegation of indecent assault, they discovered his real name and that he was “of interest” to Scottish police who were investigating similar matters involving children some years earlier.

Mason was taken to Scotland and interviewed but not charged. When he returned to Kent he asked to speak to a detective and made full admissions about abusing four girls and two boys aged between five and 14 over more than two years.

Mr Dunn said on one occasion Mason got a young boy and girl to engage in full sex.

He admitted obtaining a new National Insurance number so he could make a fresh start by claiming he was a traveller.

Mason was jailed for three years in 1982 for abusing a 12-year-old boy scout.

Alan Gardner, defending, said of Mason: "My instructions are not to mitigate the seriousness of the offences in any way, nor the sentence that must be passed."

Judge Patience said it was clear Mason had been a paedophile for many years. He had subjected them to "the most wicked, foul and vile acts of sexual abuse".

And the judge added: "I can’t imagine a more gross breach of trust, having care of these children in the sense they were allowed to be with you by carers and parents who thought they were safe."

The victims, he said, were bound to suffer lasting psychological harm.

Had a determinate sentence been passed, it would have been 14 years imprisonment. Mason will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.