A convicted sex offender searched the internet for child porn so he would be sent back to prison - because he could not get a council house.

David Clark moaned he had put in scores of applications for a council house but got nothing.

The 54-year-old, previously jailed for four-and-a-half years in total for two serious and separate sex offences in 1997 and 2004, said he got so annoyed with the lack of progress being made he decided to search for images of naked pre-pubescent and pubescent girls in sexual poses.

Clark said he knew the police would be round to check his laptop and he wanted to get caught so he could be sent back to prison.

At the time of the incident, August 2009, he had been living in temporary accommodation in Maidstone for two years.

But Clark, who now lives in Willington Green in Maidstone, later changed his mind and denied three counts of possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography, a person performing an act of intercourse with a live animal, namely a horse.

At Maidstone Magistrates’ Court this week, he changed his mind again and admitted two counts of possessing indecent images of children. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the third indecent image count and extreme image count due to lack of evidence.

Diane Ginever, prosecuting, said DS Kelly Rothwell attended Clark’s address and discovered child porn on his computer. This was sent away for analysis and more images were discovered.

She said: "He [Clark] was depressed and wanted to go back to prison. He admitted he had searched the internet for child pornography in an effort to become arrested.

"He was depressed over his inability to find a permanent home. He visited between 200 and 300 sites over two nights."

Paul Greene, defending, said: "He was trying to find a council house. He would find an appropriate property but it would come to nothing.

"It [possessing child porn] was not done for personal gratification."

The court heard Clark even recruited his MP to help him find a council home.

Magistrates released Clark on bail to return to the same court for sentencing on Tuesday, July 6. They warned Clark, who now has a home, he could be jailed.

In the meantime he has been made subject to an order which bans him from associating with children under 16 and using the internet, among other things.