Pittsburgh Man Sentenced to Over 14 Years for Deepfake Child Abuse Material

James Smelko, 57, received a prison sentence for creating and possessing images that superimposed child celebrities onto explicit content.

James Smelko was sentenced in a Western Pennsylvania federal court to 14 years and seven months in prison.
Smelko digitally created images by superimposing faces of child celebrities onto nude bodies engaged in sexual acts.
The images were discovered during a search of Smelko's computer at his Pittsburgh residence.
He violated pre-trial release conditions by accessing similar illegal content, which was detected by court-mandated software.
The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a joint initiative to combat child exploitation online.