A convicted sex offender who claimed he had bought a laptop full of indecent images while on a skiing holiday in France has been sentenced to a further 12 months in prison.

Russell Hogg, from Larkfield, had been subject to a sexual offences prevention order, when in February 2017 he was arrested for breaching the terms of it. This led to him being sentenced in April that year to two years in prison.

While the 57-year-old was serving this sentence officers continued to investigate his activities and this included carrying out a forensic examination of his computers.

This led to the discovery he had been using a laptop to download hundreds of illegal images. Hogg told police he downloaded the images onto a hard drive so he could return to France and hand it over to investigators.

In total, the laptop as well as a hard drive, were linked to more than 5,000 indecent images. Some of these were classed as Category A, the most serious.

As a result Hogg, formerly of Marlowe Road was charged with a further five offences – three of making indecent images of children and two charges of possessing indecent images of children.

At Maidstone Crown Court Hogg pleaded guilty to all the charges and was sentenced to another year in prison.

Detective Constable Debi Lloyd, of Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team, said: "Hogg made up an absurd story that he had purchased the laptop whilst on a skiing holiday and that when he later inspected it discovered the images on it.

"He even claimed to have downloaded the content onto a hard drive so he could return to France and hand it over to their police.

"The reality is that Hogg is a repeat offender and one who has again paid the price for accessing appalling images of children, who are suffering real abuse.

"We will continue do everything in our power to proactively target criminals such as Hogg, to ensure they receive a prison sentence."