AN academic convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl eight years ago has been jailed after police found sick images of children on his computer.

Dr Benjamin Yudkin, 41, had 82 images of children when police seized his computer in February.

Married Yudkin, of First Turn, Wolvercote, North Oxford, was sentenced to four months in prison at Oxford Crown Court today, after admitting three counts of possession of indecent images.

Matthew Walsh, prosecuting, told the court Yudkin was convicted of one count of sexually assaulting a young girl in 2001.

Yudkin was found guilty at Reading Crown Court of touching the girl at a Jewish holy festival and given three years’ probation.

He also admitted possession of 13 indecent photographs eight years ago.

Mr Justice John Saunders told the court that due to Yudkin’s previous convictions he must be put behind bars.

He said: “I accept it is a tragedy for him, but more of a tragedy for his wife and children. He must know he simply cannot carry on doing this and get away with it.”

Mr Walsh said four of the 82 images found by police had been saved by Yudkin on his computer.

Rachel Drake, defending, told the court Yudkin had worked with specialist groups to fight his urges since his conviction eight years ago.

He had devised coping strategies to ensure he did not offend again, but he stopped taking medication prescribed to prevent re-offending due to unpleasant side effects such as twitches and night sweats, Ms Drake added.

She said: “He won’t stop taking the medicine again. But it has to be accepted this was a relapse.”

Mr Justice Saunders described Yudkin as an intelligent man. He said: “This defendant suffers from depression and stopped taking the drug helping him with depression because of unpleasant side effects.

“Dr Yudkin recognises the seriousness of the offences. He knows... it is only because of people like him taking an interest in images such as these, that photographs of children are taken.”

Yudkin was disqualified from working with children and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years.