A pedophile who used AI to make innocent photos of children into s3xual images has been jailed for 18 years.
Hugh Nelson, 27, took requests from people online for ‘bespoke’ images showing children being sexually and physically harmed, according to a judge.
The former student, who has a Masters degree in graphics, sold some of his ‘artwork’ to chatroom users due to his desperation for validation, a court heard.
Some of his commissions used premade ‘characters’, while he would also create images of new children for a higher price.
Nelson, from Greater Manchester, UK, frequently discussed child sexual abuse with other chatroom users and on three separate occasions encouraged the rape of children aged under 13.
Bolton Crown Court heard he led a ‘lonely, socially isolated existence’ in his bedroom at his parent’s home without a job, where he used computer programs to feed his own and others’ sick fantasies.
He posed the highest category of risk of danger to the public, the Probation Service concluded.
Confessing to police, Nelson said: ‘There’s this program…which is what I’ve used to create these images.
‘I’ve probably been doing it for about two years now. And I could probably say that they have got worse in nature as I’ve continued with them.
‘It’s sick how much it affects your mind, especially when you have no job, you sit at home, you play games, you watch porn and you make these stupid goddam images.
‘My mind is very corrupted and warped.’
Explaining how he used normal photos as a template, he said: ‘It can just be images of them posing, fully clothed, to hardcore rape images. So everything really.
‘The images that I sent, I’m not sure you would classify them as any restricted image because they’re not sexual in nature at all.
‘They’re just used as a reference to create a 3D model from them.’
David Toal, prosecuting Lawyer, told how ‘the use of AI is rapidly improving and the imagery is becoming more realistic.’
The case resulted from Operation Influence, an investigation into the ‘creation and developing trends of AI about child sexual exploitation’.
Nelson was unmasked as the administrator of a pedophile chatroom when an undercover officer gained entry in May last year. He told the officer he took commissions and went on to send computer-generated images of child sexual abuse.
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 admit to the officer 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.’
Bob Elias, defending lawyer, said: ‘He has brought his life crashing down around him to the shock and horror of his immediate family.’
Nelson pleaded guilty to various sexual offenses 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.
Judge Martin Walsh 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.’
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.
