Man Jailed for 18 Years for Making AI-Generated Child Abuse Images

A man who used AI to create child abuse images using photographs of real children has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Hugh Nelson from Bolton, U.K. earned just under $6,500 (£5,000) selling AI child abuse images over an 18-month period.

On Monday, Nelson was convicted of 16 child sexual abuse offenses and jailed for 18 years in a landmark case.

According to The Guardian, Nelson had used Daz 3D, a computer program with an AI function, to turn real photographs of children into sexual abuse imagery — before selling them on an internet forum used by artists.

Nelson would then charge his network of pedophiles $104 (£80) for a new “character.” After that, he would charge was $13 (£10) per image to animate them in different, explicit positions.

Hugh Nelson’s mug shot.

In a year and a half, Nelson admits he made around $6,495 (£5,000) from selling these images.

In some cases, pedophiles commissioned the images from Nelson, supplying photographs of children with whom they had contact in real life.

Nelson was caught after he told an undercover police officer in an online chatroom that he charged $104 (£80) to create a new character, using supplied pictures.

Nelson pleaded guilty to various counts of making, possessing, and distributing indecent images of children and three counts of encouraging the rape of a child under the age of 13. Nelson was sentenced to 18 years in jail and was placed on the U.K. sex offenders register.

‘One of the First Cases of Its Kind’

Several pedophiles have recently been sent to prison in the U.K. for using AI to create child abuse images. However, in Nelson’s case, U.K. police were able to link the AI images he generated to real children for the first time.

The children who he was sent pictures of were reportedly based in France, Italy, and the U.S. Police officers in these countries were passed information about Nelson’s offenses and more arrests have been made.

“This is one of the first cases of its kind that demonstrates a link between people like Nelson, who are creating computer-generated images using technology, and the real-life offending that goes on behind that,” Jeanette Smith, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, tells Sky News.

Last month, PetaPixel reported on an alleged pedophile who was arrested after he used a GoPro to film kids at Disney World in order to create thousands of AI child abuse images.

 
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos and center photo via Greater Manchester Police.