Named: Toowoomba dad asks web group ‘send pics of your daughter’

A family man accused of living a secret life making and sharing child abuse material online has been refused bail due to fears he might tip off other “underground” offenders, a court has heard.

A family man on child abuse material charges has been refused bail.

A successful family man accused of living a secret life making and sharing child abuse material online has been refused bail due to fears he might tip off other “underground” offenders to delete their accounts, a court has heard.

Paul Andrew Bonney, a father of two adult children, appeared in the Brisbane Arrest Court on Saturday where Magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri noted that Bonney “seems to be encouraging someone to send photographs of their daughter” in one alleged secret conversation.

He described the 55-year-old’s possession, making, distribution of, and accessing of child abuse images as “high level and sophisticated”.

Bonney, from the Toowoomba suburb of Newtown, is charged with 12 charges including four counts of publishing or promoting child abuse material, three counts of possession or control of material, one count of making child abuse of material and one count failing to provide access to his phone despite it being required by a search warrant.

“There remains a risk that given his close associations it appears in this underground world he would notify others and allow others to delete their accounts and content to avoid detection,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said.

“There is some risk that he would go back to accessing material and there is some risk that he might, that other users might delete their material,” he said.

Mr Mac Giolla Ri earlier noted that Bonney’s “motivation” to delete material from online groups would be “massive”.

“There would be parts of the internet where he has stuff, I imagine, and if I was to let him out now he could access those parts of the internet and remove that content probably,” he said.

“They have seized everything that is in his house but he was accessing servers and things like that, and where he has not given access to phone, that would be the risk, that there is material out there on servers that he has put there that implicates him that he can delete once he is out,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri told the court.

Bonney allegedly had “17 years of ingrained conduct”, the Magistrate said.

“I thought perhaps there was a risk that he might be able to delete his own fingerprints but that seems unlikely to me,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said.

Police prosecutor Sgt Megan O’Brien submitted that “hidden files” found by police on Bonney’s server resulted in charges of soliciting and distributing child abuse material.

She said police had only had time to take a “partial view” of the computer server and they have over 80 terabytes data to review, with some files allegedly edited by Bonney as far back as 2007.

“He has proven himself to be quite sophisticated and adept at hiding his conduct up to this point,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said.

Defence Duty lawyer Rajiv Gill told the court that a specialised police taskforce targeting child abuse allegations has “all” of Bonney’s electronic devices, so he would be “foolish” to pervert the course of justice by deleting material while on bail.

Police don’t allege Bonney had actual physical contact of a criminal nature with children, Mr Gill said.

It is understood that Bonney’s Newtown home was raided by police last week.

Mr Gill told the court that Bonney wanted to be freed on bail because he was concerned about his wife’s mental health as two family members had recently died.

Bonney is understood to work in the gold mining industry and is an equal shareholder in Fridstool Pty Ltd with his wife Sarah.

In refusing bail, Mr Mac Giolla Ri said there was “reasonable evidence or good evidence” that Bonney “has committed very substantial offences” which could see him jailed for more than two years “if they play out and in line with the” police allegations.

He said that Bonney’s alleged refusal to allow police to access one of his devices “suggests that he is conscious that there is other material that could implicate him and that might or might not be accessed”.

“I am not satisfied that he would comply with the condition not to have an electronic device,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said in refusing bail.

Originally published as Named: Toowoomba dad asks web group ‘send pics of your daughter’