Man sentenced for artificial intelligence enabled indecent image offences 

On Monday of this week 28th October 2024 a 27-year-old man was sentenced for a number of offences relating to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create child sexual abuse content following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team (OCAIT).

Hugh Nelson pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court on the 9th August 2024 to 11 offences including three counts of encouraging the rape of a child under 13, one count of attempting to incite a boy under 16 to engage in a sexual act, three counts each of the distribution of making indecent images and one count of possessing prohibited images. At an earlier court appearance in July 2023, he pleaded guilty to publishing an obscene article and 4 counts of distributing indecent pseudo photographs of children.

He was sentenced to a custodial sentence of 18 years and placed on the Sex Offenders Register otherwise known as being made subject to notification requirements indefinitely.

Artificial Intelligence

The case was a landmark case nationally as it involved the defendant using a computer programme namely DAZ 3D with an artificial intelligence function within it to transform images of real children into images of child sexual abuse and selling these images to individuals online as well as providing them for free.

Whilst a number of defendants have been sentenced for the use of AI to create child abuse images this was one of the first cases of its kind in the UK linking computer generated AI indecent images to real children.

The defendant ran a business selling sexual images of children to individuals worldwide. Family members would send in a picture of a real child and the defendant used AI with 3D modelling software to create realistic indecent images of the child in a variety of poses or scenarios as requested by the family member sending the image.

Nelson used DAZ 3D being a software package allowing users to create and edit highly detailed animated characters. He used an additional plug in called ‘AI face transfer’. As a result of this he was able to upload real images of children and essentially transfer their faces onto a range of premade models which had the ability to be edited and customised in any way.

Nelson also engaged in communication with such individuals about sexually abusing a child they purported to have access to.

Greater Manchester Police first became aware of Nelson as a result of the UK’s Online CSA Covert Intelligence Team (OCCIT). Investigators found his adverts online and were able to trace the financial transactions back to Nelson’s home address. As part of Operation Influence being an investigation into the creation and development of trends of AI in relation to child sexual exploitation, an undercover police officer reached out to Nelson via the forum he ran. This was the first occasion that Greater Manchester Police had come across this type of AI computer generated child sexual abuse material.

What is the law surrounding AI and indecent images?  

AI-generated images of child sexual abuse are illegal. Possessing, making, and distributing indecent images of children is an offence irrespective of whether it is a real image or a pseudo-image (one created using AI or any other technology).  

Making indecent images and AI  

The main legislation used to prosecute indecent images cases is the Protection of Children Act 1978.   

Section 1(1) (a) of the Protection of Children Act 1978 includes “to take or permit to be taken [or to make], any indecent photograph [or pseudo-photograph] of a child”.   
Following the case of R v Bowden [2000] 1 Cr. App. R. 438 ‘making’ indecent images is defined as follows “to cause to exist, to produce by action, to bring about” indecent images. The court’s interpretation of ‘making’ indecent images is broad and the following can amount to making indecent images; opening an email attachment, downloading an indecent image, storing an image, and accessing a website where an indecent image “pops up”.  

It is clear that using AI to generate child sexual abuse imagery will fall within the definition of ‘making’.  

Prohibited images and AI  

The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 criminalises the possession of “a prohibited image of a child”. These are non-photographic – generally cartoons, drawings, animations or similar.  

Under the Coroners and Justice Act of 2009, it is an offence to possess a prohibited image.  A prohibited image is described as one which is ‘pornographic’ and ‘grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character’.  It must also satisfy further criteria detailed within the Act itself.  In short, the image must either concentrate on the genitalia of a child, or show a sexual act, whether it be masturbation, penetration by way of a penis or any other object, oral, vaginal or anal sex, or sex with an animal, which either actively involves a child, or a child is shown to be present during the act.  

Prohibited images, however, cannot be photographs or pseudo-photographs (photos which have been amended or photo-shopped for example).  They cannot show a real-life image of a person.  They are, therefore, sketches, paintings, cartoons or any other unreal ‘depiction’ of a person. 

Olliers Solicitors – Specialist Indecent Image Solicitors

If you require advice in relation to an indecent images investigation please contact our new enquiry team either by email to info@olliers.com, or by telephone on 020 3883 6790 (London) or 0161 834 1515 (Manchester) or by completing the form below.