A 'sex pest' has been jailed for attacks on teenage girls.

Michael Ellaway, 52, of Arlington Close, Carterton, was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a trial at Oxford Crown Court earlier this year.

On Friday, Judge Julian Hall put Ellaway behind bars for four months and ordered him to pay £750 compensation to his two victims.

Judge Hall said: "You are not a rapist. You are a pest. You deliberately on these occasions targeted two 17-year-old girls who didn't have the sexual experience to deal with you and thoroughly upset them.

"I see no reason why the two 17-year-olds whom you manhandled in that disgusting way should not be compensated."

Derek Zeitlin, defending, told Judge Hall that Ellaway continued to deny the charges against him.

He added: "He doesn't wish to go behind the jury's verdict, but says these offences didn't take place.

"He wants to say sorry for what happened in court. He has led an honest and industrious life."

Mr Zeitlin said Ellaway was the sole carer of his 73-year-old mother and had not told her about his conviction.

He said: "The first she will hear about it will be when he does not return home tonight.

"He cannot bring himself to tell her about it. If he had a custodial sentence, it would kill her."

Judge Hall sent Ellaway to jail for four months for each offence to run concurrently and added the prison term was short 'out of mercy'.