COUNTRY parks and public areas across Kent are being advertised as ideal haunts for sex fetishists on the Internet. It is part of a new craze known as "dogging" which involves exhibitionists staging sex shows for onlookers in public places.

The man pictured above was naked except for a hood, socks and shoes when police officers discovered him. He was chained to a tree near a lay-by beside the A249 at Stockbury, between Maidstone and Sittingbourne. He had a chain around his neck inviting sexual abuse.

A Kent Messenger Group photographer and reporter chanced upon the man in the woods when they joined a rural police patrol.

A website discovered by the Kent Messenger listed 14 sites in the county, including country parks, community centre car parks and industrial estates.

Sites recommended on the list include Cobtree Manor Country Park, in Forstal Road, Aylesford, near Maidstone, a layby off the A249 near Detling and the village green in Goudhurst.

It also includes warnings from health agencies about increases in sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, chlamydia and syphilis. Participants are heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual.

Sgt Richard Wingett, of Maidstone and Malling Police's rural task force, said: "We are well aware of many of these locations and we carefully monitor them. We also work with other agencies to offer health advice.

"Our role is more about deterring than enforcement. Our presence keeps the situation in check because these are not people who want to take the risk of being caught and arrested."

He stressed: "If we receive complaints we will act on them and if people are caught they will be arrested."

Officers visit known sites every day as part of their normal patrols of rural areas. Sgt Wingett described Cobtree as the main "dogging" site in the area but reassured people that there is never activity there during the day.

He said: "People can walk their dogs there or children can play there and they will never encounter it. We never get complaints about Cobtree because it all happens at night.

"The Detling lay-by is used all day and because it is nearer a residential area we do get some complaints.

"Generally speaking though these people are overt in their approaches but discreet in their activities. It is meeting someone in a nightclub - they get together at the layby but often move quickly on elsewhere."

People caught taking part in the sessions can face charges of indecent exposure or, in extreme cases, sex offences.

Dogging - watching sex - is not a crime. Sgt Wingett said: "Arrests are few and far between. We very rarely witness a gross act of indecency. Dogging is usually a consensual thing. Low-key policing is the appropriate response. But we will not tolerate it getting out of hand."

Sgt Wingett added: "I wouldn't describe it as a problem. There are not a significant number of people doing it. It is just a minority and most of the time they are very discreet."

FULL STORY IN THIS WEEK'S KENT MESSENGER