Adult held by criminal in latest torment (9)
I believe the answer is:
tantalise
'torment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'adult held by criminal in latest' is the wordplay.
'adult' becomes 'a' (abbreviation).
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'criminal' is an anagram indicator.
'in'+'latest'='inlatest'
'inlatest' is an anagram of 'tantlise'.
'a' placed into 'tantlise' is 'TANTALISE'.
(Other definitions for tantalise that I've seen before include "Tease cruelly" , "Tease and entice" , "Tease, torment" .)