Timothy Smith was carrying a dark secret - a sickening lust for children so strong it took him to the other side of the world.

By day, this familiar face in the community stood guard at one of Tunbridge Wells' busiest supermarkets. By night, he spent time in cemeteries as the self-styled leader of a ghost hunting group.

But Timothy Smith was carrying an even darker secret - a sickening lust for children so strong it took him to the other side of the world. It was, he chillingly told police during an interview, his thing.

In November 2017, the 42-year-old pervert from Burslem Road on the Sherwood estate, admitted to 16 child sex offences. He was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court one month later for 14 years with a minimum term of 10.

He admitted them all - telling police he was a paedophile. The charges against him included the possession of 37,000 images of child abuse and almost two-and-a-half days worth of video footage. He also admitted sexually assaulting a child under the age of five while in the Philippines in 2015.

Former colleagues at Tesco on Grosvenor Road where Smith worked as a security guard had little time for the man they called "The Fat Nonce With The Mail Order Bride". One said he was very touchy-feely and made her skin crawl although she wasn't aware of any complaints of impropriety being made to Tesco management.

Another said: "He'd always talk to small children in pushchairs and pick up kids who were crying. He was very hands on."

And one Tesco shopper expressed her horror at learning the truth about a man who had picked up and cuddled her children on a number of occasions.

"I don't believe in hell," Smith told Kent Live's sister newspaper the Kent and Sussex Courier during an interview in 2014, when he was describing his passion for ghost hunting. "But I do think we all have electromagnetic energy flowing through us which stays in the atmosphere after we die - call it the spirit if you like - which some people can tune into more easily than others. But you have to make up your own mind, not take anyones else's word for it. That's why I started SPIT, to satisfy my own curiosity and offer free help to anyone else seeking the answer to strange happenings."

Smith claims to have seen ghosts on several occasions and offered free paranormal investigations to anyone issuing frequent social media posts offering his services.

The group distanced itself from its former leader. A statement posted on its Facebook page said: "We are sorry to do this but we feel in the paranormal that you should know about what we seen in the paper about Tim. 'We are in shock and sick what he has done so it up to you if you want to take yourself of (sic) his group."

Detective Constable Mark Bennett of Kent Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team said: "The conviction of Timothy Smith is another important step towards making Kent a safer place. The offences Smith committed are a stark reminder that behind every image is a real tale of abuse and suffering. I am glad he has at least owned up to his crimes and will now face the consequences for his deplorable actions."

He was put on the sex offenders' register for life.