Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange was on Wednesday sentenced to 50 weeks in jail by a UK court for breaching his bail conditions. The 47-year-old had been found guilty of breaching the UK's Bail Act by Westminster Magistrates' Court in London last month after his arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he had sought refuge in 2012 following his bail over sexual assault allegations related to Sweden. At a sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Deborah Taylor told Assange it was difficult to envisage a more serious example of breach of bail conditions. "By hiding in the embassy you deliberately put yourself out of reach, while remaining in the UK," she said.

"This was in terms of culpability a deliberate attempt to evade or delay justice... Firstly, by entering the Embassy, you deliberately put yourself out of reach, whilst remaining in the UK. You remained there for nearly seven years, exploiting your privileged position to flout the law and advertise internationally your disdain for the law of this country," the judge noted, in her strongly-worded sentencing remarks. In a letter read to the court, Assange said he had found himself "struggling with difficult circumstances" and apologised to those who feel he had "disrespected" in any way. "I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case. This is not what I wanted or intended," his letter read. "I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy. I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done ¿ which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears," he added.