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NOPE
High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

Álava, Spain: Policía Nacional says a man photographed children in the street and at municipal pools, then used AI tools to make them appear naked; arrested

Spain's Policía Nacional said in a press note on 15 December 2025 that it had arrested a man in the province of Álava who photographed minors in the street and at municipal swimming pools and then manipulated the photos with artificial intelligence tools so that the children appeared naked. The investigation began in August 2025 after cyber-patrol work and international cooperation flagged someone producing child sexual abuse material; police say the suspect used advanced anonymisation techniques. A search of his home found numerous such images created with AI tools. He was arrested on suspicion of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material. The account is the police's, relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital; the number of children is not stated and the case is untried.

AI system
Unidentified image tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
15 December 2025
Event location
Spain
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
3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: Artificial intelligence tools used to manipulate photographs of minors so they appeared naked, as the Policía Nacional describes them (tools not identified)

What Happened

What police say happened. According to a Policía Nacional press note relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital on 15 December 2025, a man took photographs of minors in public streets and at municipal swimming pools and later manipulated them with artificial intelligence tools to make the children appear naked. Police found the images, created with AI tools, during a search of his home, along with other seized material.

Investigation. The investigation began in August 2025, when the force's cyber agents learned through international cooperation and online monitoring that an individual appeared to be producing child sexual abuse material. Police said locating him was difficult because he used advanced anonymisation techniques online; they traced him to the province of Álava, searched his home and arrested him.

Accusation. He was arrested as the alleged perpetrator of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material.

What is not established. The sources do not give the number or ages of the children, say whether any child or family was identified or informed, name the AI tools, or say whether the images were shared. No court outcome was found.

Reported harm

According to the Policía Nacional, a man photographed children in public places and used AI tools to turn the photos into nude images; the number of children is not stated.

Outcome

Unknown

Arrested after a search of his home in Álava and accused of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Policía Nacional (December 2025). No later court outcome was found.

What remains unknown

  • How many children were photographed and depicted, and their ages
  • Whether any child or family was identified or informed
  • Which AI tools were used and whether the images were shared
  • The outcome of the criminal proceedings

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The investigating Policía Nacional says in its press note, as relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital, that the suspect photographed minors in the street and at municipal pools and then manipulated the photos with artificial intelligence tools so the children appeared naked, and that images created with AI tools were found in the search of his home. The AI output is itself the non-consensual sexual depiction of the children (depicted_or_impersonated). The attribution is the police's; the tools and the technical basis for the AI finding are not disclosed.

3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported According to the Policía Nacional, the suspect photographed minors in the street and at municipal swimming pools and then manipulated the photos with artificial intelligence tools so that the children appeared naked.

Causal attribution. The police account, relayed by two outlets from one press note.

  • cadenaser.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'por tomar fotos en las calles y en las piscinas a menores y manipularlas con IA para apareciesen desnudos'
  • escudodigital.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'tomaba fotografías de menores en piscinas municipales o en la vía pública para, posteriormente, manipularlas y desnudar a las víctimas haciendo uso de herramientas de inteligencia artificial (IA)'
Reported According to the police, the images created with AI tools were found during the search of the suspect's home, and he was arrested on suspicion of corruption of minors through the production and possession of child sexual abuse material.

Causal attribution. Police account of the search and the accusation; untried.

  • cadenaser.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'Estas imágenes fueron localizadas en el registro de su casa junto a otro tipo de material intervenido.'
  • escudodigital.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'Durante el registro, los agentes intervinieron numeroso material de pornografía infantil creado por el sospechoso a través de herramientas de IA.'; 'El detenido está acusado de un delito de corrupción de menores, mediante la producción y tenencia de este tipo de contenido ilícito.'
Reported The investigation began in August after cyber agents learned through international cooperation and online monitoring of someone producing such material; police say locating him was difficult because of his anonymisation techniques, and he was traced to the province of Álava.

Causal attribution. Context: how the case began.

  • cadenaser.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'la investigación se inició el pasado mes de agosto'
  • escudodigital.com(opens in new tab) supports · Spanish
    'La localización del investigado fue bastante compleja ya que hacía uso de técnicas avanzadas de anonimización en la red'; 'los investigadores lograron ubicarlo en la provincia de Álava'

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 Spanish on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200); quoted passages are in the original Spanish and the English renderings in this record are by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Cadena SER (SER Vitoria) report of 15 December 2025 relaying the Policía Nacional press note. Applies to s1.

Read in Spanish on 2026-10-16 (HTTP 200); quoted passages are in the original Spanish and the English renderings in this record are by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Escudo Digital report of 15 December 2025 relaying the same Policía Nacional press note; same origin as s1. Applies to s2.

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

Event: the police say the suspect was located, searched and arrested in the province of Álava, Spain, and photographed minors in the street and at municipal pools; the places where the photos were taken are not named. Affected people: the children's locations are not stated. Court: no court outcome is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-16: Published as a reported case resting on one police origin: the Policía Nacional's press note, relayed by Cadena SER and Escudo Digital, says a man in Álava photographed minors in the street and at municipal pools and used AI tools to make them appear naked, and that the AI-made images were found in a search of his home. The AI attribution is the investigating police's; the tools and the number of children are not stated, and the suspect is not named and has not been tried.

People described

Minors photographed without their knowledge in the street and at municipal swimming pools in Spain, whose photos were altered with AI tools so they appeared naked, according to the Policía Nacional; the number is not stated

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

The police account refers to minors and 'las víctimas' without a number, so no count is taken (zero placeholders). The children did not use the AI.

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

Tags

#ai-nudification#non-consensual-sexual-imagery#criminal-charges#spain

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). Álava, Spain: Policía Nacional says a man photographed children in the street and at municipal pools, then used AI tools to make them appear naked; arrested. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-alava-police-say-man-photographed-children-in-street-and-pools-and-used-ai-to-make-them-appear-naked

BibTeX

@misc{2025_alava_police_say_man_photographed_children_in_street_and_pools_and_used_ai_to_make_them_appear_naked,
  title = {Álava, Spain: Policía Nacional says a man photographed children in the street and at municipal pools, then used AI tools to make them appear naked; arrested},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-alava-police-say-man-photographed-children-in-street-and-pools-and-used-ai-to-make-them-appear-naked}
}

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