Two women said to have suffered historic abuse at the hands of a "serial sexual predator" were triggered into sharing their alleged ordeals to police by a news report on KentOnline, a jury has heard.

An article about then 71-year-old Graham Kemp being convicted and jailed at Canterbury Crown Court in June 2018 led to the "unlocking" of details they had kept secret for up to five decades.

One allegedly abused in the late 1960s was said to have "broken down" when she learned the three-times wed former taxi driver had gone on to abuse other young girls, and felt "terrible guilt" she had not come forward sooner.

The other described at length to police how in the 1980s when Kemp was her school bus driver he had groomed her with compliments, praise and gifts, only to then take on the "twisted" role of "sex teacher".

Kemp, now 76, and formerly of Gosselin Street, Whitstable, was arrested and denied the allegations, claiming his accusers had "jumped on the bandwagon" and were lying.

But at the same court on Tuesday, where he is on trial accused of six offences of indecent assault, one of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and one of rape, prosecutor Oliver Dunkin told the jury Kemp had been "a serial sexual abuser for many, many years".

Referring to KentOnline's report of Kemp's conviction, Mr Dunkin said: "In June 2018, Graham Kemp was sent to prison at this court for sexual offences in relation to two girls in the nineties and early part of the millennium.

"As you will readily appreciate, that happening attracts press attention, and the local press attention that received was directly and indirectly the trigger for these two ladies, as they now are, to come forward and tell their story of being victims when they were girls."

Mr Dunkin said one alleged victim had been left "scared and intimidated" by Kemp who would "pick his moments" to molest her, sometimes offering money.

He also warned her to "keep her mouth shut", and if she told anyone what had happened he would say she was lying.

"She felt disgusting and, through shame, kept it a secret...She couldn't prove what he had done and he had hard-wired her as a child into believing no one would believe her," the prosecutor told the jury.

"She kept it locked away until his conviction and sentence of imprisonment came out.. She spoke to officers about the terrible guilt she felt and if she had just said something as an adult, she could have stopped him doing anything else to others."

The second complainant came forward after she too saw the article and confided in an old school friend before eventually contacting police in June 2019.

Her account, said the prosecutor, was "extremely detailed" and resulted in a recorded interview lasting four hours.

"It was a full account of what she had to reveal and get off her chest, documenting a lengthy period of abuse in her childhood dressed up as some sort of quasi-relationship borne out of classic grooming behaviour by a clearly predatory and dangerous man," Mr Dunkin told the court.

"He was a school bus driver...He groomed her under a general sort of guise as teacher. Teacher in what? Teacher in sex. He became her self-appointed confidante. He latched on and preyed on her.

"On the one hand, he was someone she was grateful to and fond of for showing interest, paying her compliments and singling her out for praise and affection.

"On the other side, a side she did not like but gave in to, was his insistent desire for sexual satisfaction with her.”

The court heard the girl was allegedly abused in numerous locations, including his car while parked up in woods, on the back seat of the bus while still in her uniform, at a friend's flat and at his matrimonial home.

Kemp is also said to have bought her gifts, including hit records Anyone Can Fall in Love by actress Anita Dobson and Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, and then "sulked like a lovestruck teenager" if she tried to stop contact.

She also told him she did not want "physical stuff", only for Kemp to say her body "craved" it and that the more she indulged "the nicer it would get".

"It was a domineering and grossly unbalanced relationship. She was not freely consenting and he very much knew it," added the prosecutor.

‘It was a domineering and grossly unbalanced relationship...’

Kemp also bought the schoolgirl a ring he was said to have made her wear as a symbol of commitment.

But it was the discovery of the receipt for that piece of jewellery which led to a confrontation with the girl and her parents by Kemp's then pregnant wife who, the court heard, was about 17 years his junior and he had met when she too was a young girl travelling on his school bus.

Kemp was said to have eventually been sacked by the bus company and became a cabbie.

He denies three offences of indecent assault in respect of one complainant, with the remaining five charges relating to the second. They are alleged to have occurred between 1966 and 1987.

Following his arrest, Kemp made "flat denials" about the allegations, and claimed to have had sex once with one of the girls "at her insistence" when she was 17, the court heard.

He claimed she was "promiscuous" and had "pursued him and pestered him for months", said Mr Dunkin.

"He said it was all her doing, all her running, and he finally gave in. He denied any quasi sex teacher role," he told the jury.

Kemp also denied he had bought her records or a ring, and refuted her recollection that he had once worn an animal-print thong in her presence.

Mr Dunkin told the jury that although the alleged offending against the first complainant was "less intense" and shorter in duration, it was "no less serious".

He also warned at the start of the trial that they should not be influenced by either Kemp's previous conviction or the attention that such abuse cases attract from the media.

"We say the defendant is a serial sexual abuser of children and a proven sexual abuser of children. But that doesn't mean necessarily that he is guilty of this indictment," explained Mr Dunkin.

Referring specifically to the BBC drama The Reckoning about presenter and sex offender Jimmy Savile, he continued: "We now have a TV programme topping the ratings - it is such a hot topic it draws people's attention.

"But that's a very good example why you now as jurors need to keep your feet firmly on the ground and decide this case only on the evidence you hear and see in this court.

"We cannot fail, some of us, but to have an opinion. That's not wrong but as a jury it won't assist you or us."

The trial continues.