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High reported severity Investigation Opened

Gelderland, Netherlands: police arrest a man suspected of making and spreading sexual deepnudes; 130 victims reported repeated harassment

Dutch police said on 4 September 2025 that they had arrested a man in a Gelderland municipality the day before on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, which they call deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups, and of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages. According to the police, 130 victims from across the country reported to them over recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; NOS reports, citing the police, that images were manipulated for some of them, that the exact number is unclear, and that the police suspect the conduct began in 2021 or 2022. The police seized digital data carriers and said the Public Prosecution Service would decide on the consequences. No tool is named.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
4 September 2025
Event location
Netherlands
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
4 claims: 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 130 people

AI system as recorded: AI-manipulated sexual images ("deepnudes") of women, according to the police and NOS (tool not identified)

What Happened

The arrest. In a news release of 4 September 2025, Dutch police said they had arrested a man in a municipality in Gelderland on Wednesday 3 September on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, also called deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups. He is also suspected of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages.

The victims. According to the police, 130 victims from across the country have reported to them in recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; the police withheld further details about them for privacy reasons. NOS, citing the police, reports that images were manipulated for some of the victims but that the exact number is unclear, and that the police suspect the conduct had been going on since 2021 or 2022.

The investigation. The police said their investigation followed several complaints and had been running for some time, that the suspect was being questioned and his digital data carriers had been seized, and that the Public Prosecution Service would decide the consequences. The police do not name the tool used.

Reported harm

According to the Dutch police, sexual deepnudes were made and spread through WhatsApp groups and 130 victims reported regular and repeated harassment; NOS, citing the police, says images of some of the victims were manipulated.

Outcome

Ongoing

Arrested on 3 September 2025 and questioned; digital data carriers seized. The police said the Public Prosecution Service would decide the consequences. No charge or trial is reported in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • How many of the 130 victims were depicted in deepnudes and how many were harassed in other ways.
  • Which AI tool was used and how the police established the AI manipulation.
  • When the conduct began; the police estimate is 2021 or 2022.
  • Whether the Public Prosecution Service has charged the suspect.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Dutch police, who investigated after several complaints and seized the suspect's data carriers, state that he is suspected of making and spreading sexually explicit deepfakes, which they call deepnudes, and NOS, relaying the police, explains these as images manipulated by artificial intelligence and says images were manipulated for some of the 130 victims. The manipulated images depict some of the victims (depicted_or_impersonated) and their spread is part of the harassment reported. The police do not name a tool or say how the AI manipulation was established, and the number of women depicted is not stated.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Dutch police said they arrested a man in the province of Gelderland on 3 September 2025 on suspicion of making sexually explicit deepfakes, also called deepnudes, and spreading them through channels such as WhatsApp groups, and of sending women unsolicited photos of his genitals and sexual messages.

Causal attribution. Police release, relayed by NOS (one origin); NOS adds the gloss that deepfakes are images manipulated by artificial intelligence. No tool is named.

  • politie.nl(opens in new tab) supports · Dutch
    De man wordt ervan verdacht seksueel getinte deepfakes (ook wel deepnudes genoemd) te hebben gemaakt en te hebben verspreid via bijvoorbeeld Whatsappgroepen. Daarnaast zou hij vrouwen ongevraagd foto’s van zijn geslachtsdeel en seksueel getinte berichten hebben gestuurd.
  • nos.nl(opens in new tab) supports · Dutch
    verdacht wordt van het maken en verspreiden van seksueel getinte deepfakes. Dat zijn beelden die door kunstmatige intelligentie zijn gemanipuleerd.
Reported According to the police, 130 victims from across the country reported to them over recent years and were regularly and repeatedly harassed; NOS reports, citing the police, that images were manipulated for some of them and that the exact number is unclear.

Causal attribution. Police figures relayed by NOS.

  • politie.nl(opens in new tab) supports · Dutch
    In de afgelopen jaren hebben zich 130 slachtoffers uit het hele land bij de politie gemeld. Ze werden regelmatig en herhaaldelijk lastiggevallen.
  • nos.nl(opens in new tab) supports · Dutch
    Volgens de politie zijn er 130 slachtoffers. Van een deel van hen zijn beelden gemanipuleerd. Hoeveel precies is niet duidelijk.
Reported NOS reports that the police suspect the conduct had been going on since 2021 or 2022.

Causal attribution. Police estimate as reported by NOS.

Reported The police said the investigation followed several complaints and had been running for some time, that digital data carriers were seized, and that the Public Prosecution Service would decide the consequences for the suspect.

Causal attribution. Police release.

  • politie.nl(opens in new tab) supports · Dutch
    Het politieonderzoek na meerdere aangiftes loopt al langere tijd. ... Ook zijn digitale gegevensdragers in beslag genomen. Het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) zal uiteindelijk bepalen wat de gevolgen zijn voor de verdachte.

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Dutch on 2026-10-19; quoted passages are kept in Dutch and the English sense was rendered by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Police news release of 4 September 2025; the live page returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher and the text was read from an Internet Archive capture of the same URL (HTTP 200). Applies to s1.

Read in Dutch on 2026-10-19; quoted passages are kept in Dutch and the English sense was rendered by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. NOS report of 4 September 2025 (HTTP 200) relaying the police, including the police estimate of when the conduct began. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Netherlands. Affected-person countries: Netherlands. Court countries: Unknown.

The Dutch police arrested the suspect in a municipality in Gelderland, Netherlands, and say the victims come from across the country. No court proceeding is reported in the sources read.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-19: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): the investigating Dutch police say the suspect made and spread sexual deepnudes and that 130 victims reported repeated harassment; NOS, relaying the police, describes the images as manipulated by artificial intelligence. The police do not disclose how the manipulation was established. No victim or suspect is named.

People described

Victims from across the Netherlands (the police say he sent women unsolicited sexual images and messages), 130 of whom reported to the police that they were repeatedly harassed; an unstated number were depicted in sexual deepnudes

People reported harmed in this case

At least 130 people

0 AI participants · 130 other people harmed

At least 130: the police say 130 victims reported repeated harassment (NOS headline "zeker 130"). Only some of them were depicted in manipulated images, and the police do not say how many; the count covers the harassment victims of this case, not only the depicted women.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#deepnudes#sexual-deepfakes#harassment#netherlands#police-arrest#whatsapp

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Gelderland, Netherlands: police arrest a man suspected of making and spreading sexual deepnudes; 130 victims reported repeated harassment. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2022-gelderland-netherlands-police-arrest-man-suspected-of-making-and-spreading-sexual-deepnudes-130-reported-victims

BibTeX

@misc{2022_gelderland_netherlands_police_arrest_man_suspected_of_making_and_spreading_sexual_deepnudes_130_reported_victims,
  title = {Gelderland, Netherlands: police arrest a man suspected of making and spreading sexual deepnudes; 130 victims reported repeated harassment},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2022-gelderland-netherlands-police-arrest-man-suspected-of-making-and-spreading-sexual-deepnudes-130-reported-victims}
}

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