A forklift truck driver from Blackburn who groomed and sexually abused a young girl in Belfast is starting a four-year jail sentence.

Michael Harry Costar, of Tenby Close, was arrested by police in Lancaster over the offending last year.

Detectives had wanted him for questioning over sustained sexual offending allegations involving a girl aged under 16 in the Northern Irish capital.

He made a brief appearance initially before Belfast City Magistrates' Court, charged with five related offences, concerning dates between December 2009 and December 2012, in March last year.

Costar, now 52, eventually pleaded guilty to 29 offences involving grooming and sexual abuse of the girl and he was jailed for four years by Judge Patrick Lynch KC at Belfast Crown Court.

He will also be subject to a seven-year sexual offences prevention order and will be on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

Speaking at the time of Costar's arrest, DI Judith Hamill, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s public protection branch, said: "As a police service, safeguarding children and locating potential offenders of these crimes remains a top priority.

"Those who seek to harm children in this way in Northern Ireland should be fearful of the consequence of their actions.”

Costar is reported to have made contact with the girl, who at the time was only 13, via a social media network when he was aged 39.

Police said then, following online grooming, he sexually abused his victim during several visits to Belfast.

He was later caught with indecent images of the girl on his arrest.