Paedophile who made £5k from creating AI child abuse images using real pictures jailed for 18 years
28 October 2024, 14:36 | Updated: 28 October 2024, 14:41
A paedophile who made thousands of pounds by creating child abuse images using AI technology and real pictures of children has been jailed for 18 years.
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Hugh Nelson, 27, of Bolton, Greater Manchester, accepted requests from individuals via online chatrooms before using a 3D character generator to turn ordinary, non-explicit pictures of children into child abuse images, Bolton Crown Court heard.
The former student, who has a Masters degree in graphics, told officers in a police interview: "A lot of my characters were commissioned by their dads, uncles, family friends."
People who knew the children would send Nelson images of them and he would then charge his network of paedophiles £80 for a new "character" before charging £10 per image to animate them in different, explicit positions, the court heard.
Over an 18-month period, Nelson admitted he made around £5,000 from selling these images.
Nelson frequently discussed child sexual abuse with other chatroom users and on three separate occasions encouraged the rape of children aged under 13, the court heard.
He posed the highest category of risk of danger to the public, the Probation Service concluded.
Nelson’s parents sat in the public gallery at the court with his mother weeping while their son, appearing via video link from HMP Forest Bank, was jailed.
Passing sentence, Judge Martin Walsh, Honorary Recorder of Bolton, said: "There appears to have been no limit to the depth of depravity exhibited in the images that you were prepared to create and to distribute to others.
"The nature and content of the communications which you entered into is utterly chilling."
He ordered Nelson to also serve six years on licence after he is released from jail and he must sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.
Judge Walsh told Nelson it was impossible to say whether a child was in fact sexually abused as a result of his images but he intended to encourage others to commit child rape and had "no idea" how his images would be used.
Earlier, David Toal, prosecuting, said the case resulted from Operation Influence, an investigation into the "creation and developing trends of AI (artificial intelligence) in relation to child sexual exploitation".
The defendant was unmasked as the administrator of a paedophile chatroom when he engaged in a conversation with an undercover officer in May last year.
Mr Toal said: "The defendant said he had over 60 characters in total, ranging from six months to middle-aged, and he charged £80 to create a new character.
"He further stated 'I've done beatings, smotherings, hangings, drownings, beheadings, necro, beast, the list goes on' with a laughing emoji."
The defendant went on to say that "creating 3D porn could get me jail time", and later added: "Most of the people who commission me don't/can't f*** their nieces, daughters etc, so the way I see it is I provide a valuable service."
Nelson, who had no previous convictions, was arrested at his family home in Egerton, Bolton, in June last year and told police he had a sexual interest mainly in girls aged about 12.
He said he had met like-minded people on the internet and eventually began to create images for sale as he considered his offending "had got out of control".
Various devices were seized and were found to contain a large quantity of indecent images as well as chats online with adults in France, Italy and the United States regarding the sexual exploitation and rape of children, although there was no evidence before the court to say any child had been sexually or physically assaulted.
Bob Elias, defending, said Nelson was a "shy, gauche man" who led a "lonely, socially isolated existence" in his bedroom at his family home.
The defendant pleaded guilty at a hearing to various sexual offences including intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of the rape of a child under the age of 13, making and distributing indecent images of children and attempting to incite a child aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
Outside court, Jeanette Smith, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "It is extremely disturbing that Hugh Nelson was able to take normal photographs of children and, using AI tools and a computer programme, transform them and create images of the most depraved nature to sell and share online.
"Technology is rapidly evolving and, unfortunately, so too is its risk to children.
"I hope this conviction sends a clear message to those who exploit this technology and inflict harm on children: you will be robustly pursued by law enforcement, prosecuted by the CPS and brought to justice."
Detective Chief Inspector Jen Tattersall, head of Greater Manchester Police's Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: "Nelson is an extremely dangerous man who thought he could get away with what he was doing by using modern technology.
"He was wrong and has now felt the full force of the law for his actions."
Derek Ray-Hill, interim chief executive at the Internet Watch Foundation, said: "Technology is now enabling previously unthought of violations of innocent children.
"We are discovering more and more synthetic and AI images of child sexual abuse, and they can be disturbingly life-like.
"Children deserve safety, and the abuse of this technology is a nightmare which only risks making the internet a worse and more dangerous place for everyone."
