'A shocking piece of work' Lawyers on both sides slammed by judge in sex offender case | Preston Crown Court
“How have we got to this stage without anyone thinking this through? In an unusual move, a judge at Preston Crown Court criticised prosecution and defence lawyers for a ‘shocking piece of work’ after sex offender almost sentenced twice.
A judge in Preston has intervened to prevent a sex offender being sentenced twice for the same offences.
Michael Costar was brought before the city’s Crown Court to face nine charges involving indecent images of children.
He appeared on a video link from Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland where he is already serving an eight-year sentence for similar offences.
But Judge Guy Mathieson raised serious concerns that many of the images he was jailed for in Lisburn were the same ones he was charged with in Preston.
And he halted the sentencing hearing to allow solicitors on both sides of the Irish Sea to confer to see if there had been “an overlap” leading to double counting.
Costar, from Blackburn, had pleaded guilty in Magistrates Court to three charges of making indecent photographs of children, four of distributing indecent child images, one of possessing an indecent image of a child and one of possessing extreme pornography.
The court was told the 54-year-old had been convicted of 29 serious sex offences in Northern Ireland in 2024, including making and distributing child porn images, and was not due to be released from Maghaberry Prison until March next year.
The prosecution felt there could be some “overlap” because many of the images were thought to be common to both cases.
Costar had been committed to Preston Crown Court for sentence by magistrates who felt their powers of punishment were not sufficient. But Judge Mathieson said the case may have to go back to the lower court to start afresh if it could be found many of the images were the same in both prosecutions.
“How have we got to this stage without anyone thinking this through?” he asked both prosecution and defence lawyers at this week's hearing.
He described it as: “A shocking piece of work by those who allowed him in Magistrates Court to enter pleas of guilty. I don’t think the magistrates knew he was a serving prisoner in Northern Ireland. What needs to happen is full disclosure on both sides. It needs to be looked at to see if there is any overlap.”
He asked Costar who his solicitors had been for the case in Northern Ireland. When he said he couldn’t recall he asked him to find out so they could be put in contact with his solicitors in Lancashire.
“You shouldn’t be sentenced twice for the same offences,” he told him. “That shouldn’t be allowed to happen. There seems to be an awful lot more that needs to be done. It’s better we have it done correctly rather than have an unfair and illegal conclusion.”
He adjourned sentencing until July 24 to try and get the matter resolved. But he warned that the case may have to be remitted back to the lower court “to start all over again”.
In September 2024 Costar was sentenced to eight years in prison at Belfast Crown Court for a total of 29 offences including two of meeting a child following sexual grooming, 19 of having sexual activity with a child, one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, four of making indecent photographs of a child and three of possessing indecent images of a child.
He was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for seven years and put on the Sex Offenders’ List indefinitely.
The case centred around his involvement with a girl in Northern Ireland beginning when she was just 13 and ending just before her 16th birthday.
He was 39 when it started. He was said to have struck up a relationship with the child on a chat forum telling her he was 18.
After grooming her he travelled from his home in Blackburn to meet her at Lisburn railway station. He committed an offence on a train on the way to Belfast where he booked them in to a hotel as uncle and niece.
She realised he wasn’t 18 but felt compelled to go along with what he said. He locked the bedroom door and had sex with her.
Over the following two years he regularly travelled over to Northern Ireland to engage in further sexual encounters. On some occasions he turned up outside her school.
She said he pressurised her into having sex saying he had travelled a long way to see her. He also plied her with gifts including chocolates, lingerie and flowers.
The relationship ended when the girl’s family moved house. Costar still tried to make contact, and she eventually informed the police.
He was arrested in 2023 at his home in Tenby Close, Blackburn and taken to Belfast for questioning. On his phone police found 580 images and videos of the girl, 52 of them Category A, 42 Category B and 486 Category C.
Costar admitted he knew she was 14 but said all sexual encounters had been consensual, and he had not forced her to do anything against her will.
He was jailed in September 2024 but appealed against his eight-year sentence in 2025 saying the judge’s starting point had been too high. The Appeal Court dismissed his appeal.