A NEWLY appointed mayor has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Cllr Peter Homewood (Con), who was inaugurated as Mayor of Tonbridge and Malling last week, was exposed as the friendly face of an American website helping young women and men to find a wealthy older partner to "spoil and pamper" them.

The site, called sugardaddie.com, asks its users whether they use illegal drugs.

Cllr Homewood was backed by colleagues from all parties as the news broke before his inauguration ceremony, on May 11.

The website was set up 18 months ago by his son, John, 32, who lives in Miami.

Cllr Homewood, who represents Blue Bell Hill and Walderslade and is now the first citizen of the borough, admitted that he had made a mistake.

The 64-year-old said: "My son called me up many months ago saying, 'Dad, I need a photograph of a man with silver hair.'

"I never thought the website was going to do very much. My wife said at the time, 'do you really think you should be doing this' and I said that this is what you do for your kids."

The father-of-three said that he saw no reason to resign as mayor because he had had no involvement in the website other than allowing his son to use a picture of him. His name was not used on the site.

The Mayor said: "I hid nothing and I attempted to hide nothing."

He said he had been surprised by the attention of the national media, including BBC Radio Four.

His son has since removed the small picture from the site. Cllr Homewood is convinced that somebody from within his own family circle informed the press.

He said: "It could only have been someone associated with my family, outside my family nobody would have known about it."