A Pittsburgh man has been slapped with a 14-year, 7-month prison sentence for possessing deepfake child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that digitally superimposed the faces of child actors onto nude bodies and bodies engaged in sex acts.
James Smelko, 57, of Pittsburgh, was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography and one count of accessing with the intent to view child pornography in November 2023. The federal jury in Pittsburgh delivered the guilty verdict after evidence presented at trial revealed Smelko’s possession of the disturbing images on two separate occasions.
According to court documents, Smelko possessed the deepfake CSAM at his home in Pittsburgh. Law enforcement discovered the pictures during a search of Smelko’s computer, which led to his initial charges. However, Smelko’s troubles didn’t end there. While pending trial, he was found to have violated his conditions of pretrial release by accessing such images after incriminating web searches and images were detected by court-mandated monitoring software installed on his cell phone.
The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office investigated the case, and Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Mitchell for the Western District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office made the announcement, highlighting the importance of combating the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
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Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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