Former Harrogate shotgun fanatic spared jail after police find 'arsenal of weapons' in 'underground den'

A 78-year-old shotgun fanatic has been spared jail after police found kilos of components and chemicals capable of being turned into improvised explosive devices at his former home in Harrogate.

Geoffrey Crossland was already serving a jail sentence after police found an underground den at his home in the tiny hamlet of Padside where he had stashed an arsenal of weapons and kept 2.2 million indecent images of children on an array of electronic devices, York Crown Court heard.

As part of that hoard, they also found components and chemicals capable of being used for explosives, but he wasn’t charged in relation to that discovery until November 2024.

In March 2019, Crossland, a competition-level marksman, was jailed for 12 years and eight months for three counts of downloading indecent images and nine counts of possessing illegal firearms, as well as possessing 844 extreme pornographic images and possession of 12,482 prohibited or sexual cartoon images of children.

He was placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

The illegal “armoury” of potentially lethal weapons included a double-barrel shotgun, handguns, rifles, a semi-automatic pistol, a .22-calibre German-made revolver, an automatic firearm, air guns, a Jager P74 army rifle and a .38 Brocock bolt-action rifle, as well as over 20,000 rounds of ammunition including bullets and home-made cartridges.

Crossland’s firearms licence allowed him to keep just five shotguns and restricted the amount of ammunition he could possess to 1,200 rounds, but the retired businessman, who was a member of a local shooting club at the time, had just under 24,000 rounds.

He was released partway through that sentence in November 2024, but in October 2018 police reportedly found more firearms at his home.

Following investigations, Crossland was arrested again and charged with several new allegations including three counts of possessing a prohibited firearm, the manufacture of a self-loading pistol without the permission of the Secretary of State, the selling or transferring of a prohibited firearm and possessing an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose, namely “chemicals and other items capable of manufacturing an explosive substance” – an offence under the Explosive Substances Act.

Crossland – now of Riddlesden in Keighley – denied all matters and the case was due to go to trial, but he ultimately pleaded guilty to the explosives charge.

The other allegations were ultimately dropped by the Crown due to an “exceptional” delay in the charging of the new firearms allegations.

The court heard that Crossland – who had shot competitively for the UK – had previously owned firearms legitimately for over 40 years and was given air guns by his father as a gift for passing his 11+ exams.

Judge Sean Morris told Crossland: “In 2018, police raided your farm and in a far corner of a field, in a bunker that was invisible to everyone, they found an armoury.

“You were charged with a large number of firearms offences and at this court in 2019 you received a sentence of 12 years and eight months’ prison, mainly for the firearms offences.

“While you were serving that sentence, police were investigating this offence and later charged you with these other firearms (allegations) arising out of the firearm parts they seized in 2018.

“There’s no evidence you had any malicious intent by having this material and the prosecution have stressed that.”

The judge noted that Crossland’s compliance with his prison licence to date had been “blameless”.

He added: “I do not consider you to be a danger. I do not think that you will offend again.”

He said there was “every prospect of rehabilitation” in Crossland’s case, adding: “You have already begun that process, so to send you back to prison again would be an affront to justice.”

Crossland was handed a 31-month jail sentence, or two years and seven months, but this was suspended for 12 months.