A former educator arrested in April 2022 on charges of sexual acts with a child and rearrested the following month on 28 child porn charges, who remained on the run for a month, changed his plea Wednesday.

Thomas Deane, 32, of Bonita Springs pleaded guilty to 19 counts of possession of child pornography before Lee Circuit Judge Margaret Steinbeck.

As part of the plea deal reached with Assistant State Attorney Francine Donnorummo, the state dropped nine of the other counts Deane faced.

Steinbeck adjudicated Deane guilty and sentenced him to 23 years of prison with credit for 280 days, followed by seven years of sex offender probation.

Deane stared directly at Steinbeck as she asked him specific questions to make sure he understood the consequences of his plea agreement. Ocasionally, Deane looked back as people entered and left the courtroom.

Steinbeck on March 11 issued a bench warrant for Deane’s arrest after he did not appear for a mandatory court hearing. The warrant indicated Deane would be held without bond.

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Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers on April 10 updated their search for Deane, indicating he was in custody. It remained unclear where Deane was apprehended.

Deane worked as a history teacher at the Canterbury School, a private college prep school in Fort Myers. Lee County sheriff’s deputies arrested him on April 6, 2022, on charges of lewd and lascivious battery, accused of having oral sex with a 16-year-old boy.

Deane, whose home address is across the street from a Bonita Springs elementary school, was charged with possession of more than 100 images of child pornography at the time of his latter arrest.

According to his arrest affidavit, several of the videos found in Deane’s possession included adults and teens sexually assaulting toddlers and small children.

Deane was booked into the Lee County Jail on May 10, 2022, on $420,000 bond. He was released Sept. 23, 2022.

Charges dropped in first case involving teen victim

Before the arrest on child pornography, Deane was charged April 6, 2022, with two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior on a victim between 12 and 16.

But since August 2023, Deane only faced the charges in the latter of his two arrests.

Donnorummo dropped the charges in the first case against Deane on Aug. 22, 2023. Court records do not specify why the charges were dropped.

The arrest affidavit said Deane connected with a teen on Grindr, a meet-up app for LGBTQ+ people, in December 2021. They then moved their conversations to Snapchat, a messaging and photo- or video-sending app where content automatically deletes itself after 24 hours.

In February 2022, the boy’s mother reported to the FBI that her son was the victim of a sex crime in Bonita Springs. Lee County sheriff’s detectives interviewed her son in March of that year, who said Deane fondled him under his clothing and that they had oral sex.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Thomas Deane, ex-Canterbury teacher facing porn charges, accepts plea deal