Gun fanatic had 2.2m sick pictures of children

A GUN-OBSESSED pensioner who collected one of the largest hauls of indecent images of children known in England and Wales has been jailed.

Geoffrey Crossland, 70, was told by a judge that the ‘scale of the depravity’ in the 2.2million still and moving pictures would be hard for the public to come to terms with.

The collection – stored on SD cards, USB sticks, DVDs, SIM cards, floppy disks, laptops, tablets and phones – was found when officers raided his home at Padside Green Farm, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in October last year. Thousands of the images were of the most extreme Category A. Police also found an underground bunker, created using shipping containers, filled with guns and ammunition.

At York Crown Court yesterday, Crossland (pictured) admitted possessing illegal firearms and possessing guns and ammunition without certificates.

He had already admitted three counts of making indecent images.

Sentencing him to 12 years and eight months in jail, judge Andrew Stubbs said: ‘These images capture real life people, and real life abuse.’ North Yorkshire Police said it was looking into whether Crossland was involved in the ‘direct abuse of

children’.