A North Carolina child psychiatrist was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Wednesday for using artificial intelligence to transform photos of innocent children into intense pornographic images.
David Tatum, 41, will also have to serve 30 years of supervised release for secretly filming multiple teenagers – including several members of his family and a patient – undressing.
“It’s appalling to believe anyone would secretly film children undressing and bathing for their own sexual gratification. And when the evidence proves that person is a doctor entrusted with helping children through difficult mental health situations, it’s unimaginable,” Robert DeWitt, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge in North Carolina, said in a statement.
The sentence comes six months after Tatum was convicted of one count of producing child pornography, one count of transporting child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.
The child and adolescent psychiatrist spent five years amassing a collection of child pornography starting in 2016, according to evidence presented at his trial.
That year, he secretly filmed his 15-year-old cousin and other minor family members as they undressed and showered at the family’s vacation home in Maine.
Tatum filmed the former patient several times by pointing the camera up her skirt during one of her therapy sessions. He had turned 18 just five days before the visit — but Tatum wrote he was only 17 in his notes, indicating he understood he was recording child pornography, according to court documents.
When his own videos were no longer enough, Tatum turned to “fake deep” websites to digitally alter images of minors’ clothing to make them sexually explicit.
Two of the images Tatum used AI to modify were from a school dance and a photo commemorating the first day of school, officials said.
When he was finally arrested in 2021, Tatum had more than 1,000 titles of child pornography, including videos containing the phrase “PTHC,” which stands for pre-teen hardcore, according to prosecutors.
Tatum later confessed to being a spy.
In addition to his sentence, Tatum was ordered to pay a special assessment of $100 for each conviction count and a special assessment totaling $99,000 under the Amy, Vicky and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.
After he is released from federal prison, Tatum will be required to register as a sex offender.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
