A FORMER nuclear scientist and Mastermind contestant who wound up living in squalor because of mental illness spent Christmas in prison.

Martin Cresdee, 64, who used to work for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, admitted stealing two bikes from unknown owners and three CDs and a book from his local library. He took one of the bikes from the White Horse Leisure Centre near his home in Hobbs Close, Abingdon, and the other from Coxeter House in Ock Street.

Cresdee admitted four charges of theft at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on December 23.

He was sent to prison for 28 days and ordered to pay an £80 victims’ surcharge and a £150 criminal courts charge.

He worked for the Atomic Energy Authority at Culham for 20 years but walked out in 1992 after an argument with his boss. A breakdown followed and he has not worked since.

After his late wife went into care in 2008, Mr Cresdee lived alone. The physics graduate from Imperial College London stopped both bathing and seeing friends and relatives.

In 2012 he was convicted of stealing cat food from Budgens in Abingdon.

He featured in the Oxford Mail in 2013 after Abingdon shopper Damian Hickman met him in the town centre and learned his story. Mr Hickman, who lives in Chilton, tried to help Mr Cresdee by offering to pay his bills, but the latter’s disorder made co-operation difficult.