Skip to main content
NOPE
High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

Merseyside police say a man used AI to make 266 indecent pseudo-images of children and made sexual deepfakes of real women; he was jailed in 2024

Merseyside Police said in October 2024 that a Southport man had been jailed for two years and two months at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing an intimate photograph or film, and voyeurism. According to the police, an investigation found that between July 2023 and January 2024 he made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology, and that he used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images, which the force calls deepfakes, and shared them online. Two women described in victim impact statements lasting fear, anxiety and a sense of violation. A woman related to him by marriage later told the Liverpool Echo that explicit images of her, which she found online after anonymous messages in September 2022, were made by other people he had asked to deface her photos, and that the case never went to prosecutors after his arrest in January 2023.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Jul 2023 to Jan 2024
Reported
23 October 2024
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or AbusePsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: Unnamed AI technology that Merseyside Police say the man used to make indecent pseudo-images of children (tool not identified)

What Happened

The conviction. Merseyside Police announced on 23 October 2024 that a Southport man had been jailed the previous day at Liverpool Crown Court for two years and two months. He had pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing a photograph or film of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification, and voyeurism.

The AI-made images. The police release says that, as part of a complex investigation, it was found that between July 2023 and January 2024 he made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology. The release also says he used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images and shared them online. It calls these images deepfakes, which it defines as images or videos digitally altered with the help of AI to replace one person's face with another's. The BBC's report of the release says the 266 images used the faces of real women and children; in the police text the explicit statement of AI use concerns the 266 pseudo-images of children, and the images of women are described as deepfakes under the release's AI definition.

The people harmed. In victim impact statements published by the police, one woman said that knowing the images were circulating online was violating and that she was permanently anxious and struggled to sleep. A second woman said she felt unsafe in her own skin and violated. The police do not say how many children's faces were used.

An earlier account. A woman related to the man by marriage told the Liverpool Echo in May 2026 that, after anonymous messages in September 2022, she found explicit images online in which her face had been placed on other bodies. In her account he did not then know how to make deepfakes himself and had uploaded her photos and asked other people to deface them. She says he was arrested in January 2023 and the case never went to prosecutors; the Echo and SWNS report that no law then covered such images. A SWNS feature syndicated in October 2026 repeats her account.

What is not known. The police do not name the AI tool or say how they established its use, how many children or women were depicted, or whether the two women who gave victim impact statements were depicted in AI-made images or in images made by other means.

Reported harm

Merseyside Police say the man made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology between July 2023 and January 2024, and used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge in pornographic images he shared online; two women described lasting anxiety and a sense of violation.

Outcome

Resolved

The man pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing a photograph or film of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification, and voyeurism, and was jailed for two years and two months at Liverpool Crown Court on 22 October 2024 (Merseyside Police). A relative by marriage says that after an earlier arrest in January 2023 the case never went to prosecutors.

What remains unknown

  • Which AI tool was used and how the police established its use.
  • How many children and women were depicted; 266 is the police count of AI-made pseudo-images of children.
  • Whether the two women who gave victim impact statements were depicted in AI-made images or in images made by other means.
  • Where the images were shared online and whether they were removed.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The investigating Merseyside Police say the man made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology between July 2023 and January 2024 and that he used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge in pornographic images he shared online. The AI-made depictions of real people were the sexual images at the centre of the offences. The police do not name the tool or say how they established its use, and their explicit statement of AI use concerns the pseudo-images of children; the images of women are called deepfakes, which the release defines as images altered with the help of AI.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The man pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing a photograph or film of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification, and voyeurism, and was jailed for two years and two months at Liverpool Crown Court on 22 October 2024.

Causal attribution. Court outcome as announced by the police; no AI role is stated in the offence names.

  • merseyside.police.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing a photograph or film of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification and voyeurism. ... He was jailed for two years and two months yesterday, Tuesday 22 October, at Liverpool Crown Court.
  • metro.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    He was jailed for two years and two months on October 22 at Liverpool Crown Court.
Reported Merseyside Police say an investigation found that between July 2023 and January 2024 the man made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology.

Causal attribution. The investigating police attribute the 266 pseudo-images to AI technology; they do not name the tool or say how they established its use.

  • merseyside.police.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    As part of a complex investigation, it was also found that between July 2023 and January 2024, ... made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology.
  • metro.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology.
Reported The police say the man used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images and shared them online, and describe the images as digitally altered images known as deepfakes, which the release defines as images altered with the help of AI to replace one person's face with another's.

Causal attribution. Police account; the release's own AI statement (c2) concerns the pseudo-images of children, and the BBC relay extends the AI wording to the women's images.

  • merseyside.police.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    including creating and sharing digitally altered pornographic images of children and women – known more commonly as ‘deepfakes’. ... A ‘deepfake’ is an image or video that has been digitally altered with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to replace the face of one person with the face of another. ... used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images and shared them online.
  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    using artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the faces of real women and children before sharing them online, Merseyside Police said.
Reported Two women gave victim impact statements, published by the police, describing a sense of violation, fear that others had seen the images, anxiety and difficulty sleeping.

Causal attribution. The statements describe harm from the pornographic images; the sources do not say whether these women's images were made with AI.

  • merseyside.police.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Knowing those images of me are out there circulating the internet is so violating. ... A second woman who was targeted in the same way said in her Victim Impact Statement
  • bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    I worry when a man looks at me for too long and panic that he may have seen the images.
Reported A woman related to the man by marriage says the explicit images of her that she found online after anonymous messages in September 2022 were made by other people he had asked to deface her photos, because he did not then know how to make deepfakes himself, and that the case never went to prosecutors after his arrest in January 2023; the Echo and SWNS report that no law then covered such images.

Causal attribution. In this account the earlier images of her were made by other people he asked to deface her photos (the method is not stated); they predate the period the police describe and are context, not among the AI-made images the police count.

  • liverpoolecho.co.uk(opens in new tab) supports · English
    he obviously didn't know how to create these deepfake images at that point, so he had uploaded hundreds of headshots of me off my Facebook, Instagram, family photos that were shared in our groupchat and he had asked people to deface them. ... there was no law against deepfake pornography at the time so technically no crime had been committed. ... was arrested in January 2023, with police pinning their investigation on the missing black heels. ... It never went to the Crown Prosecution Service. They decided on that day there was not a case to be answered.
  • jambalayanews.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    opened Facebook in September 2022, she found an anonymous message ... Then a quick Google search of the username uncovered a series of digitally altered images, with her face superimposed onto the naked bodies of other women. ... There was no law against deepfake pornography at the time so technically no crime had been committed

Sources

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

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-20 through an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2024id_/...), because the live page returned HTTP 403; no translation needed. Applies to s1.

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-20; HTTP 200. BBC report relaying the Merseyside Police release and victim impact statements, the same police origin as s1. Applies to s2.

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-20; HTTP 200. Metro report reproducing the police release wording, the same police origin as s1. Applies to s3.

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-20 through an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2026id_/...), because the live page returned an empty HTTP 202; interview with a woman related to the man by marriage. Applies to s4.

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-20; HTTP 200. SWNS feature syndicated by Jambalaya News, based on an interview with the same woman as s4, so not independent of s4. Applies to s5.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: United Kingdom.

The case was investigated by Merseyside Police and sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court, so the court country is the United Kingdom (GB). The sources describe the man as from Southport but do not say where the images were made, uploaded or viewed, or where the depicted children and women live, so no event or affected-person country is recorded.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-20: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): the investigating Merseyside Police say the man made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology and used real women's and children's faces in pornographic images he shared online; he pleaded guilty and was jailed. The technical basis of the police AI attribution is undisclosed, and a relative's account that her earlier images were edited by other people is recorded as context. No victim is named.

People described

Children and women whose faces, according to the police, were used without their knowledge in pornographic images made and shared online by the man; two women gave victim impact statements

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

No reliable count: the police say real children's and women's faces were used but give no number of people depicted (266 is a count of images). Two women gave victim impact statements, but the sources do not establish that their images were among those the police tie to AI, so they are not counted.

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

Tags

#ai_generated_images#pseudo_images_of_children#sexual_deepfakes#guilty_plea#united_kingdom

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Merseyside police say a man used AI to make 266 indecent pseudo-images of children and made sexual deepfakes of real women; he was jailed in 2024. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-merseyside-police-say-man-used-ai-to-make-indecent-pseudo-images-of-children-and-sexual-deepfakes-jailed

BibTeX

@misc{2023_merseyside_police_say_man_used_ai_to_make_indecent_pseudo_images_of_children_and_sexual_deepfakes_jailed,
  title = {Merseyside police say a man used AI to make 266 indecent pseudo-images of children and made sexual deepfakes of real women; he was jailed in 2024},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-merseyside-police-say-man-used-ai-to-make-indecent-pseudo-images-of-children-and-sexual-deepfakes-jailed}
}

Related cases

Medium Unidentified image tool

Cookeville, Tennessee: two high-school students were charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after the sheriff's office said they used an AI program to turn photographs, including those of female classmates, into sexually explicit images and posted them; the mother of one depicted girl says her daughter shut herself in her room and stopped talking to friends

On 31 August 2026 the Putnam County Sheriff's Office was told of possible sharing of sexually explicit images at Cookeville High School. Detectives found that two male teenage students had used an artificial-intelligence program to turn photographs obtained online, in some cases photographs of fellow female students, into sexually explicit images, and had shared them; explicit images already stored on one phone were also shared. Both juveniles were taken to the Putnam County Juvenile Detention Center. One was charged with one count each of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, the other with two counts of each. The district attorney told NewsChannel 5 on 21 September that the two would be prosecuted in juvenile court. The mother of one of the depicted girls told the station the episode was very hard on her daughter, who had made no naked photographs herself, locked herself in her room and would not talk to her, to anybody or to her friends. The sheriff's-office account and the school system's statement were carried by WZTV, WSMV and 3B Media News on 1-2 September; NewsChannel 5 added its own interviews with the sheriff, the district attorney and the mother on 21 September. The tool is not named. The juveniles are not named in any report.

Medium Unidentified image tool

Woman says a classmate sent an AI-undressed image of her to his contacts; he says his account was hacked, and police refused a case pending an examination

A 23-year-old woman told the news site Kaktus.media that in July 2026 she learned that acquaintances had received a nude image of her made with AI from her photograph, and that the sender was a classmate. She says he first told her an app had generated and sent the image by itself, then admitted that he had undressed her Instagram photo through AI himself. In a written statement to the outlet the accused says he used a Telegram bot offering AI photo processing in May or June 2022 and was shocked by the result, and that the images were sent from his Telegram account on the night of 11 to 12 July 2026 by people who had hacked it. The woman says she suffered severe psychological stress and harm to her reputation. She filed a complaint with a district police department on 21 July; after she complained to the prosecutor's office the matter moved to another district department. That department told Kaktus.media that, because the review period expired before expert results arrived, it had refused to open a criminal case and had ordered a new examination. Her lawyer says four motions filed on 5 August have gone unanswered.

High Unidentified image tool

Seoul: doctoral student sentenced to 18 months for 1,141 AI-manipulated sexual images of seven laboratory colleagues

On 10 September 2026 the Seoul Northern District Court sentenced a 30-year-old Chinese national doctoral student to 18 months in prison for habitually producing manipulated sexual images of seven women who worked in his university research laboratory. Investigators found 1,141 files made over about six months from November 2025, and search records for ways to bypass the safeguards of the generative AI Grok; the court found no evidence of distribution. A lawyer for five of the victims said they continued to suffer fear, trauma and distress. Prosecutors had sought three years and public disclosure of his identity, which the court declined.

High Unidentified image tool

Pennsylvania man sentenced to prison in a case where prosecutors and court documents say he made AI deepfake nude images of a teenage neighbor

A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, judge sentenced a man to state prison on 14 October 2026 after he pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse material and theft charges. According to court documents and prosecutors, detectives who began investigating him in June 2025 found AI-generated deepfake nude images of a teenage girl he knew, a neighbor, on his devices; her face had been placed on other bodies. The day after the arrest he was recorded entering her family's home and stealing her underwear. Her father described the family's distress in court, and the Inquirer reports that she is struggling at school, taking antidepressants and in therapy. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports a sentence of seven to 10 years. The Bucks County Courier Times gave seven to 12 years in its first report and seven to 20 years after republishing it to update the sentence length. Neither report names the AI tool.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents