Victorian court hears police found images on a man's phone in which AI put his stepdaughter's face on explicit images; he pleaded guilty to child offences
A central Victorian man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 to charges including an indecent act with a child under 16 and possessing and producing child abuse material, the Bendigo Advertiser reported on 29 October. According to the summary of offending read to the court, when police executed a search warrant they found material on his phone that included images in which AI had been used to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images. The indecent-act charge concerns an incident in 2015, when she was 13. The man cannot be named for legal reasons. The police prosecutor asked for a term of imprisonment; the magistrate adjourned sentencing to 3 December 2026.
- AI system
- Unidentified image tool
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 29 October 2026
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Exploitation or Abuse
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Privacy · Relationships · Justice
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source
- 3 claims: 3 reported. 4 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: An AI tool used to place the victim's face on sexually explicit images, as described in the police summary of offending read to the court; tool not named
What Happened
The plea. The Bendigo Advertiser reports that a central Victorian man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 and pleaded guilty to charges including committing an indecent act with a child under 16, and possessing and producing child abuse material. The indecent-act charge relates to a 2015 incident involving his stepdaughter, then 13, which she reported to police in 2020; she asked police to investigate in 2022.
The AI images. According to the summary of offending read to the court, police executing a search warrant found sexual material on the man's phone. The summary stated that the phone contained images in which AI had been used to place the victim's face on sexually explicit images. When those images were made, and with what tool, is not reported.
The hearing. The defence said the quantity of material was not substantial and was not obtained for sale or distribution. The police prosecutor said anything other than a term of imprisonment would not be just punishment. In her impact statement the victim said she had lost parts of her childhood she never got back.
Reported harm
According to the police summary of offending read in court, a man's phone held images in which AI had been used to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images; he pleaded guilty to charges including producing child abuse material (court report; sentence pending).
How Harm Occurred
According to the police summary of offending read in court, the man used AI to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images, which police found on his phone.
Outcome
PendingThe man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 to charges including committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and possessing and producing child abuse material. The police prosecutor said anything other than imprisonment would not be just punishment; the magistrate adjourned sentencing to 3 December 2026.
What remains unknown
- When the AI images were made, the victim's age at that time and the tool used.
- Whether the AI images form part of the child abuse material charges (the report identifies a different video on the phone as child abuse material because it was made when she was under 18).
- Whether the images were shared with anyone.
- The sentence.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The police summary of offending, read to the Bendigo Magistrates' Court after a search of the man's phone, stated that the phone contained images in which AI had been used to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images. The AI output is those images, which depict her sexually without consent; the man pleaded guilty to producing child abuse material. The police attribution comes from a party that examined the phone, but its technical basis and the tool are not disclosed, and the report does not say whether the production charge covers the AI images.
3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 to charges including committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and possessing and producing child abuse material.
Causal attribution. Court reporting of the plea and charge sheet; the court record itself was not inspected.
- bendigoadvertiser.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'appeared before the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on October 20 to plead guilty'; 'was pleading guilty to charges including committing an indecent act with a child under 16, and possessing and producing child abuse material.'
Reported According to the summary of offending read to the court, the man's phone contained images in which AI had been used to place the victim's face on sexually explicit images.
Causal attribution. The AI attribution is the police summary of offending, relayed by the court reporter; its technical basis is not disclosed.
- bendigoadvertiser.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'The summary of offending also stated the phone contained images in which AI had been used to place the victim's face on sexually explicit images'
Reported The police prosecutor asked for imprisonment; the defence said the quantity of material was not substantial and was not obtained for sale or distribution.
Causal attribution. Parties' submissions as reported.
- bendigoadvertiser.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'anything other than a term of imprisonment would not be just punishment'; 'the quantity of material found was "not substantial" and was not obtained for sale or distribution.'
Sources
1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- Bendigo Advertiser, 29 Oct 2026: central Victorian man created AI pornography of his stepdaughter(opens in new tab)
s1 · bendigoadvertiser.com.au · News report · English · Inspected · 29 October 2026 · Primary
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-31 (HTTP 200, full article). The report relays the police summary of offending read to the court, the charge sheet and the parties' submissions. No translation and no human reviewer. Applies to s1.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Australia.
The case was heard in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court in Victoria, Australia. Where the AI images were made is not stated, so no event country is inferred from the court or from the man's description as central Victorian.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-31: Published as a court-reported case in which the police summary of offending states that a man used AI to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images. One court report; the AI attribution is the police summary's and its technical basis is not disclosed; sentence pending.
People described
The man's stepdaughter, now an adult, who reported the offending to police; her age when the AI images were made is not stated
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One person: the stepdaughter depicted in the AI images. No other depicted person is reported.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Victorian court hears police found images on a man's phone in which AI put his stepdaughter's face on explicit images; he pleaded guilty to child offences. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-central-victoria-court-hears-police-found-ai-explicit-images-of-mans-stepdaughter-on-his-phone
BibTeX
@misc{2026_central_victoria_court_hears_police_found_ai_explicit_images_of_mans_stepdaughter_on_his_phone,
title = {Victorian court hears police found images on a man's phone in which AI put his stepdaughter's face on explicit images; he pleaded guilty to child offences},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-central-victoria-court-hears-police-found-ai-explicit-images-of-mans-stepdaughter-on-his-phone}
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