Paedophile Hugh Nelson who made AI child abuse images from real pictures sent to him jailed for 18 years in ‘deeply horrifying’ landmark case
A paedophile who made thousands of pounds by creating child abuse images using AI and real pictures of children has been jailed for 18 years in a landmark case.
Hugh Nelson used a 3D character generator to turn ordinary, non-explicit pictures of children into child abuse images, before selling them on an internet forum used by artists.
People who knew the children in the real world would send the 27-year-old images of them.
Nelson, from Bolton, would then charge his network of paedophiles £80 for a new “character”. After that, it was £10 per image to animate them in different, explicit positions.
Over an 18-month period, Nelson admits he made around £5,000 from selling these images.
In some cases, Nelson then went on to encourage his clients to rape and sexually assault the children, the court heard.
In a police interview, the paedophile told officers: “A lot of my characters were commissioned by their dads, uncles, family friends.”
Jeanette Smith, a specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: “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.”
A number of paedophiles have been sent to prison recently for using AI to create child abuse images.
In Nelson’s case, however, police were able to link the images he generated to real children for the first time.
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.
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May: AI used to make child abuse images
The children who he was sent pictures of were all based abroad, in France, Italy and the United States.
Police officers in those countries have been passed information about Nelson’s offending, and more arrests have been made.
Although this is the first time someone has been prosecuted for creating this kind of child abuse imagery, the authorities are preparing for many more.
Inside the Internet Watch Foundation in Cambridge, dozens of analysts scour the internet every day, hunting down child abuse images and removing them from the internet.
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In the last six months, they’ve seen more child abuse images made using AI than they did all of last year.
Dan Sexton, the charity’s chief technical officer, said: “Our work has always been difficult anyway.
“[But] we’ve never had to deal with the possibility that someone could download some software on their computer and create an infinite amount of new images.
“They use as many as they can until the hard drives fill up. That’s a new type of harm that which we have not been prepared for.”
The Internet Watch Foundation tackles child sexual abuse material online
One of the charity’s analysts, known only as Jeff when he’s at work to protect his identity, said he was worried about how convincing AI imagery is becoming.
“We’re reaching the point now where even a trained analyst would struggle to see whether it was real or not,” he said.
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In August, Nelson pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court 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 and making of indecent images, and one count of possessing prohibited images.
At an earlier court appearance in July 2023, he also pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing indecent pseudo photographs of children and one of publishing an obscene article.
Detective Constable Carly Baines, from Greater Manchester Police, said the case was “deeply horrifying”.
She added: “It became clear to us after extensive trawls of his many devices by digital forensic experts however, that his behaviour went far beyond what clearly he was seeing as a ‘business opportunity’.
“Not only was he creating and selling these images, but he was engaging in depraved sexualised chat online about children and going as far as to encourage people interested in his online content to commit contact offences such as rape against children they knew or were related to.”
UK drivers are “confused” by the country’s electric car transition, ministers are being warned.
Although most drivers are not hostile towards electric vehicles (EVs), many are confused about what changes are coming and when, according to new research from the AA.
In a survey of more than 14,000 AA members, 7% thought the government was banning the sale of used petrol and diesel cars.
Around a third thought manual EVs exist, despite them all being automatic.
More than one in five said they would never buy an EV.
The government’s plan for increasing the number of electric vehicles being driven in the UK focuses heavily on increasing the supply of the vehicles.
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What you can do to reach net zero
In 2024, at least 22% of new cars and 10% of new vans sold by each manufacturer in the UK had to be zero-emission, which generally means pure electric.
Each year, those percentages will rise, reaching 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans in 2030.
Manufacturers will face fines of £15,000 per vehicle if electric vehicle sales fall short of 28% of total production this year.
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By 2035, all new cars and vans will be required to be fully zero emission, according to the Department for Transport.
Second-hand diesel and petrol cars will still be allowed to be sold after this date, and their fuel will still be available.
There are more EVs – but will people buy them?
In February, 25% of new cars were powered purely by battery and in January, they made up 21% of all new cars registered in the UK.
But despite the growth of electric sales, manufacturers continue to warn that the market will not support the growth required to hit government EV targets, and called for consumer incentives and the extension of tax breaks.
The AA suggested the government’s plan focuses on “supply but does little to encourage demand for EVs”.
It called on ministers to co-ordinate a public awareness campaign alongside the motoring industry which directly targets drivers who doubt the viability of EVs.
“Our message to government is more needs to be done to make EVs accessible for everyone,” said Jakob Pfaudler, AA chief executive.
Which? head of consumer rights Sue Davis said: “When it comes to making sustainable choices such as switching to an electric car, our research shows that people are often held back by high costs, complex choices or uncertainty.
“The government needs to provide the right information on electric vehicles and other sustainable choices so that people have the confidence to switch.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re investing over £2.3bn to help industry and consumers make a supported switch to EVs.
“This includes installing a public charge point every 28 minutes, keeping EV incentives in the company car tax regime to 2030, and extending 100% first-year allowances for zero-emission cars for another year.
“Second-hand EVs are also becoming cheaper than ever, with one in three available under £20,000 and 21 brand new models available for less than £30,000.
“We’re seeing growing consumer confidence as a result.”
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