Online Child Abuse Team snare soldier

North Yorkshire Police’s Online Child Abuse Team (OCAT) has secured justice against a now former soldier from Middlesbrough.

Adam David Bonner, 19, was sentenced at York Crown Court today (Wednesday 11 November 2026) to three years and four months in a Young Offender Institution having pleaded guilty to 11 offences back in July.

These included:

• making and distributing indecent images of children in categories A, B and C
• engaging and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child
• possessing a prohibited image of a child
• attempting to cause a girl aged under 13 to engage in sexual activity
• attempting to cause a child under 13 to look at an image of sexual activity
• possessing an extreme pornographic image involving an animal

Bonner’s offending first came to the attention of the OCAT in March 2025 when a computer he was suspected to be using to download hundreds of indecent images of children was traced to his previous army barracks in Devon.

Following enquiries to establish his identity, he was arrested at Catterick Garrison the following month on 16 April.

OCAT detectives, with assistance from the Digital Forensics team, were able to prove a catalogue of offending which spanned the country where Bonner had been stationed with the army.

This included Dorset, in Scotland, and his hometown of Middlesbrough.

As well as the custodial sentence, Bonner has also been placed on the Register of Sex Offenders, barred from working with children and vulnerable adults, and handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Detective Sergeant Graeme Bevington, from the Online Child Abuse Team, said: “We were able to seize numerous digital devices in Bonner’s army quarters which all linked back to him.

“From the point of his arrest, we were able to quickly establish that he had a large amount of child sexual abuse material in his possession along with extreme images involving a child and another involving an animal.

“We were also able to prove his efforts to engage in sexual communication with children and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

“His offending is truly reprehensible, and we are glad that Bonner is now behind bars for a significant period of time. 

“Crucially, he will be subject to robust public protection measures for the rest of his life.”

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