A budding filmmaker who used AI to make indecent images of children was jailed for 18 years today – as footage emerged of him admitting to having a ‘warped’ mind.
Hugh Nelson said he was providing a ‘valuable service’ by taking ‘commissions’ from relatives and family friends of youngsters – charging them £80 to turn a real image of a child into a 3D ‘character’ being physically and sexually abused.
The 27-year-old was shown on camera confessing to detectives that his actions had been ‘absolutely grotesque’ after being confronted with evidence about his ‘sick’ deepfake factory.
But he showed no emotion this morning as he was jailed at Bolton Crown Court for 18 years, plus six years on licence, after previously pleading guilty to 11 offences.
Operating from his family home near Bolton, Nelson used AI technology to manipulate innocent photographs of real children as young as four into scenes of nudity, rape and torture – making around £5,000 but giving out others for free.
Hugh Nelson confessing to detectives after using AI to make indecent images of real children
The 27-year-old was exposed after one of his ‘clients’ turned out to be an undercover officer
Nelson, from Bolton, has been jailed for 18 years in a ‘landmark’ case targeting sex abusers
In one vile message he boasted to the officer that images he had created included ‘beatings, smotherings, hangings, drownings, beheadings, necro, beast, the list goes on’ – accompanied by a laughing emoji.
Passing sentence, Recorder Walsh said: ‘These harrowing and sickening images were forwarded by you for financial gain. So far as you were concerned the undercover officer was just another anonymous customer.
‘You had no regard to or concern for the potential consequences of the distribution of the images that you had created.
‘You told the undercover officer that »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».’
He said it was ‘impossible to know’ whether a child was raped of sexually abused as a result of Nelson’s encouragement, adding he was ‘not to be sentenced on the basis that an act or acts of rape did in fact take place’.
‘However, you had no idea of the true identity of those with whom you were communicating or as to what might in fact happen as a result of the encouragement that you were giving,’ he continued. ‘You had no idea how far and wide the images that you created would be distributed by others and to what purpose they would be put.
‘It is, it should be stressed, implicit in your pleas that you intended to encourage or to offer assistance to those with whom you were communicating with to engage in the rape of a child.’
Today the team which secured Nelson’s conviction – believed to be the first of its kind in the UK – warned that child abusers are increasingly exploiting rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
It comes after researchers from the respected Internet Watch Foundation found 3,512 images of child sex abuse made using AI on a dark web forum in a 30-day period.
Its chief executive Susie Hargreaves is calling on governments and the tech industry to work together on ‘proper controls’ to stop the technology being used to provide ‘a playground for online predators to realise their most perverse and sickening fantasies’.
Nelson exploited his skills to manipulate innocent photographs of real children into ‘deepfake’ scenes of nudity, rape and torture
Nelson also exchanged messages in chatrooms that were capable of encouraging the rape of children
Social media pictures show Nelson proudly showing off his computer software
In clips from his police interviews released today, Nelson can be heard saying: ‘It’s sick how much it affects your mind, especially when you have no job, you sit at home, play games, watch porn, and make these stupid f****** God damn images.
‘My mind is very corrupted and warped.’
Nelson also says: ‘I fell into this this pit of despair and absolute grotesque behaviour, and it just spiralled and just got worse.’
In another the paedophile admits: ‘I am sexually attracted to kids.’
He also confesses: ‘I’ve been completely swept up in it, it’s taken over my life.’
While still a teenager, Nelson was selected to take part in a film-making academy run by the British Film Institute.
He also did work experience on the Jeremy Kyle Show’s sound department, according to his Instagram page.
He graduated from Salford University with a first-class degree in professional sound and video technology before studying for an MA wildlife documentary production, according to his website.
But in a vile sideline he used widely available AI technology to turn photographs of real children into scenes of physical and sexual abuse before selling the images online, making around £5,000.
Nelson swapped messages with paedophiles in France, Italy and the US and created indecent images of children for them – some purporting to be their young relatives – for £80 per ‘character’.
He also discussed carrying out depraved child sexual abuse, although no evidence has been found that any children had actually been sexually abused.
And he exchanged messages in chatrooms that were capable of encouraging the rape of children, Bolton Crown Court heard last week.
Nelson used a popular virtual modelling program called Daz 3D to create explicit computer-generated images plus an AI plug-in to add the faces of real children.
He was arrested in June 2023 when a large quantity of indecent images were found on his devices at his family home in of Egerton, near Bolton.
They included 808 Category A – the worst type – 424 Category B and 456 Category C.
He pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to 16 charges, including three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of the rape of a child under 13, ten counts of either making or distributing indecent images and one count of attempting to cause a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
He also pleaded guilty to publishing an obscene article and one count of possessing prohibited images of children.
Robert Elias, defending, said this was the first case he’d come across were the pornography was ‘tailored made’ and ‘bespoke’.
He described Nelson as a ‘shy, gauche man’ who had lived a ‘lonely, bedroom life’ and sought ‘social validation’ for what he was doing.
Mr Elias said an ex-girlfriend had ‘liked to role-play as a much younger woman’, which had introduced ‘fantasy’ scenarios to him.
He also claimed Covid had impacted Nelson.
‘He was a socially isolated and a lonely man who desperately wanted some sort of validation and that seems to be the reason he plunged down a rabbit hole and a fantasy life,’ Mr Elias said.
But he accepted that Nelson had created ‘monstrous images of depravity’ for his customers.
Nelson’s parents had attended court and he blew kisses and waved to them in the pubic public gallery.
Afterwards Jeanette Smith, specialist prosecutor for the CPS’s organised child sexual abuse unit, said lessons learnt from investigating Nelson would be used to track down other abusers who exploit the darker frontiers of artificial intelligence.
‘I think it is the tip of the iceberg,’ she told Mail Online.
‘I think as technology evolves, so there will be more cases like this.
‘But people like Hugh Nelson who think they can hide in encrypted chat rooms need to think again.
The paedophile used widely available AI technology to turn photographs of real children into scenes of physical and sexual abuse before selling the images online, making around £5,000
A Powerpoint presentation with mocked-up images of the AI face transfer technology Hugh Nelson used
Police released a Powerpoint presentation which explains how Nelson would use software to make the AI images
‘The police do have the capability to find them, and we will robustly prosecute them and make sure they’re brought to justice.’
She added that anyone who believed that creating computer-generated images of child abuse was a less serious offence was ‘absolutely wrong’.
‘The legislation applies just as equally to real photographs as it does to computer-generated images.’
DCI Jen Tattersall of Greater Manchester Police‘s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team said it was a ‘landmark’ case.
She added: ‘He is a significantly depraved individual, because not only was he creating indecent photographs of children using software, but he was inciting offences against vulnerable children.’
Greater Manchester Police have also passed on intelligence about suspects based in France, Italy and the US to the authorities there.
However they are not aware of whether any of the children whose images were used by Nelson were physically abused.
