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An ex-university law lecturer with a "dark side" carried out a string of sex attacks on young girls, a court heard.

Julian Myerscough denies abusing three girls between 2001 and 2010. He faces 11 counts in total, including two charges of raping a child under 13.

Ipswich Crown Court was told he had "a powerful sexual interest in very young girls".

Prosecutor Matthew Jewell told jurors the defendant had shown "an appalling abuse of trust".

He said: "He is an intellectually strong man but there is a dark side to Mr Myerscough."

The jury was told how the victims, now adults, had revealed the abuse in later life to boyfriends or those they trusted.

One victim described to police in August 2017 how they were abused at three or four years old.

The court heard Myerscough was convicted in 2010 and 2017 of possessing indecent images of children and was given prison terms.

He could not be imprisoned for the latter as he had left the country for Ireland, then Romania.

The prosecutor said he was arrested there last August and a mobile phone, containing 360 indecent images of children and 10 videos, was seized.

Jurors were told some of the images showed children aged between three and six years old. Mr Jewell said Mr Myerscough's email addresses and pictures of himself linked him to the phone.

Mr Myerscough, a former lecturer at the University of East Anglia and originally from Bolton, denies two counts of rape of a child under 13, four counts of indecent assault, four charges of sexual assault by penetration, and an offence against a child under 16.

The trial continues.