The jury in the trial of a former law lecturer accused of sexually abusing girls has retired to consider its verdicts.

Before Ipswich Crown Court is 57-year-old Julian Myerscough, formerly of Lowestoft, who denies 11 charges relating to three girls under 13 between 2001 and 2010, including two of rape, four of indecent assault and four of assault by penetration.

Giving evidence during his trial Myerscough denied "sexually interfering" with any of the alleged victims.

Asked by his barrister Simon Spence QC about allegations of against one of the girls, Myerscough again responded: "No, no, never."

He described the allegations against him as "impossible" and "fantastic".

During Myerscough's trial, one of the former university lecturer's alleged victims told the court she felt unable to disclose details of his behaviour towards her when she was asked about it a decade ago.

She claimed to have been uninformed about sex and inappropriate behaviour when spoken to following his arrest for possessing indecent images of children on a computer in 2009.

The Bolton-born former law lecturer, who was subsequently convicted of possessing indecent images, sacked from his job at the University of East Anglia and jailed, said the "overwhelming majority" of images found in 2009 were already "hidden" on a computer he acquired from someone else.

He later declared: "As a law lecturer, I have written on the devastating effect on the innocent, and on the guilty, of these offences - even when they're minor - you'll never work again."

He was again convicted of possessing indecent images in 2015, when he walked out of Ipswich Crown Court while the jury retired to consider its verdict.

He was detained two days later, in Dublin, under a European Arrest Warrant, but was later released from Irish jail by the High Court and fled to Romania, from where he was eventually brought back on a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of current allegations the following August.

Myerscough said he was sexually abused and beaten by other inmates for almost two weeks while awaiting extradition in a Romanian jail.

The jury retired to consider its verdicts yesterday, and is expected to continue its deliberations on Monday.