A 34 year-old mummy’s boy, caught with over 20,000 sick pictures and videos of young children, plus disturbing publication ‘The Pedophiles Handbook,’ has been jailed for 32 months.
Department store worker Matthew Costar described in court as a “solitary” individual who lives with his mother had another handbook called ‘Kids and Sex Toys.’
“Over a lengthy period of time you were collecting dreadful images of young children being raped and terribly abused,” Croydon Crown Court Judge Nicholas Ainley told him on Friday.
“You joined with people of the same mind and distributed the material so others could view. I agree this was all fantasy on your part, but the children being abused were real enough.
“We are dealing with young children here, many are six or seven years-old and go down to three years of age.”
Costar, of Elmcroft Road, Orpington pleaded guilty to three counts of making a total of 22,211 images; possessing the two manuals and distributing indecent images.
Prosecutor Mr. Jonathan Loades told the court police raided Costar’s home on September 15, 2017. “The defendant had a large number of computers and laptops and hard drives.
“It was clear there was peer-to-peer software allowing others to search his hard drives and download material and all items were seized and submitted for forensic analysis.”
Costar’s lawyer Mr. Mark Bagshaw said: “He is a solitary man and does not have access to children and has from an early age looked at pornography online.
“He looked at adult pornography, but also child pornography and has reflected on what he has done.
“He has not accessed pornography for the last two years and resigned from his department store job yesterday.
‘He got himself into a habit without particularly thinking about it and there is no suggestion his viewing of images has gone any further than that.”
Costar was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register and made subject to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.