The sentencing hearing of a 70-year-old Suffolk man who has admitted sexually assaulting a schoolgirl has been adjourned until later this month.

John Elsley of Halesworth Road, Linstead, Halesworth, was due to have been sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday (January 10) but the hearing was adjourned until January 31 following an application by prosecution counsel, Richard Kelly.

At an earlier hearing, Elsley pleaded guilty to assaulting a child under 13 by penetration and two offences of sexual assault on the same child on the same date in October last year.

At a hearing in November, Judge Martyn Levett ordered that a pre-sentence report should be prepared on Elsley by the probation service.

He warned him that the fact he was adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report shouldn’t be taken as an indication of the likely sentence he would receive.