A 27-year-old man sent to a mental health unit for assessment before sentence for sexual assault of a young girl has had his case adjourned again.

Nigel Nash, of Springfield Road, Smallford, St Albans, pleaded guilty to sexual activity in the presence of a child under 16 and sexual assault of a female child under 13.

In September the judge imposed a hospital order admitting Nash to the Eric Shepherd Unit in Abbots Langley - a secure mental health unit - for six weeks for assessment before sentence.

The report was not carried out and Judge Martin Griffith, at the same court earlier this month, extended the interim hospital order, detaining Nash at the unit until sentence today.

However, Judge Griffith ordered that Nash remain at the hospital for another month for assessment before sentence on December 23.

At the previous hearing the court was told Nash was struggling at the unit where he had been subjected to a number of “frightening incidents” by patients whose behaviour is more “volatile” than his.