by Keith Hunt

A sex offender said to live “a manipulative and predatory lifestyle” has been jailed for his second offence of downloading child sex abuse images from the internet.

Russell Hogg was sentenced to nine months in 2005 under an extended sentence in which he was on licence for a further three years.

The offence involved 19,000 indecent images.

Now, the 50-year-old lorry driver, of Marlowe Road, Larkfield, has been jailed for 15 months for a similar offence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard yesterday it was discovered after he got into an argument with another HGV driver.

He went to his cab, grabbed a CS gas spray and discharged it into the other driver’s face.

Anne Phillips, prosecuting, said the police were called and Hogg was arrested. His home was searched and a laptop computer was found under his bed. Another was also seized.

When he was arrested previously, the computers had been taken by police and wiped clean before being returned to his mother on the understanding he was not to have access to them.

Mrs Phillips said the computers were checked again and found to have over 100 indecent images of children on them. He used search words such as “Lolita”.

Hogg had also failed to disclose his criminal record on an application form for work as an HGV driver.

The prosecutor said Hogg committed an offence of indecency in 1974 and had a conviction in Austria in 2002 for endangering the moral health of children.

He was in breach of a sexual offences prevention order.

Hogg was jailed for four months in 2006 for racially aggravated threatening words and behaviour.

Judge Jeremy Gold QC told Hogg, who admitted making indecent images of children and fraud, he was not in the least surprised a probation officer concluded he lacked empathy for his victims and he was regarded as a high risk to children.

Hogg was jailed for 12 months for the downloading offence and three months consecutive for fraud.