Locations
Middle Row, Maidstone, ME14
Description
A convicted sex offender has been jailed again after breaching a court order by approaching children in a Maidstone library.
Russell Hogg ignored a raft of measures, which strictly prohibited his access to anyone under 16, and started conversations with groups of children in school uniform.
Hogg was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) in January 2018, after he was sentenced to prison for making and possessing child sex abuse images.
The order contained several restrictions designed to safeguard children, for when Hogg was granted parole. These included a ban on any unsupervised contact or communication with a child, as well as limitations around his use of the internet.
Approached and stared
On 24 April 2023, Hogg attended Maidstone Library, where a group of school children were sitting at a table and studying. He tried to engage them in conversation, stared at them for long periods and shouted towards the group as he was sat at a computer terminal.
Hogg revisited the library over the following weeks and on 12 May approached the same group of children. He asked ‘is this a social meet up or a study meet up?’ and loitered at their table.
Hogg, 64, of Middle Row, Maidstone was arrested on the same day and later charged with breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Appearing before Maidstone Crown Court, he pleaded guilty and admitted further charges which included failing to comply with notification requirements and possessing and making indecent images of children.
Disturbing desires
On Tuesday 20 August, Judge Robert Lazarus sentenced Hogg to two years and 10 months’ imprisonment, describing him as ‘a committed paedophile’.
Upon his release from custody, he will be subject to a revised SHPO with further restrictions.