August 2020

‘Despicable’ North Yorkshire paedophile, 72, sentenced for taking ‘grotesque’ pictures of three-year-old

A ‘despicable’ paedophile from North Yorkshire has been jailed for taking indecent photographs of a three-year-old girl in a “grotesque breach of trust”.

Geoffrey Crowther, 72, from Boroughbridge in the Harrogate borough, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment at York Crown Court todayafter previously pleading guilty to four charges.

The charges included making four indecent images of children in the most serious Category A, making three indecent images of children in Category B, making 10 indecent images of children in Category C, all of which were between June 14 2017 and November 14 2018.

Crowther was also charged with taking indecent images of a child in Category C, which relate to first generation images Crowther took secretly of a three-year-old girl on two different smart phones.

The self-employed heavy goods vehicle driver has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register.

Acting on intelligence about suspicious website activity linked to Crowther, the North Yorkshire Police’s abuse & exploitation team arrested him on November 13 2018 and carried out a search warrant at his home address.

Numerous telephones and other devices were seized for examination and following a long-running investigation led by DC Fiona Saunderson, Crowther was charged on 1 April 2020 and pleaded guilty to the offences at York Crown Court on 9 July 2020.