Before selling them on an online forum for artists, Hugh Nelson utilized a 3D character generator to transform commonplace, non-explicit photographs of children into images of child abuse.
The 27-year-old would receive pictures of the kids from people who actually knew them.
Nelson from Bolton would then charge £80 for a new “character” to his network of pedophiles. After that, animating the images in various explicit positions cost £10 each.
Nelson acknowledges that he sold these photos for about £5,000 over the course of 18 months.
The court heard that Nelson occasionally encouraged his customers to rape and sexually abuse the children.
“A lot of my characters were commissioned by their dads, uncles, family friends,” the pedophile said to authorities during an interview.
“This is one of the first cases of its kind that shows a link between people like Nelson, who are using technology to create computer-generated images, and the real-life offending that goes on behind that,” said Jeanette Smith, a CPS specialist prosecutor.
Recently, several pedophiles have been imprisoned for utilizing artificial intelligence to produce photos of child abuse.
But in Nelson’s case, for the first time, authorities were able to connect the pictures he created to actual kids.
