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Pittsburgh Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Deepfake Child Pornography
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 14 years and 7 months in prison for possessing deepfake child sexual abuse material depicting numerous child celebrities.
James Smelko, 57, of Pittsburgh, was found guilty of one count of possessing child pornography and one count of accessing with the intent to view child pornography in November 2023. According to court documents, Smelko possessed and accessed pictures that digitally superimposed the faces of child actors onto nude bodies and bodies engaged in sex acts on two separate occasions.
The illicit images were discovered by law enforcement during a search of Smelko’s computer, which was conducted after he was charged with possessing child pornography. Smelko was found to have violated his conditions of pretrial release when incriminating web searches and images were detected by court-mandated monitoring software installed on his cell phone.
Smelko’s crimes were investigated by the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office and prosecuted by Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Mitchell for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
Smelko’s sentencing serves as a reminder of the severity of child sexual abuse material crimes and the importance of continued efforts to combat this epidemic. The Justice Department remains committed to holding perpetrators accountable and protecting the most vulnerable members of our society.
The investigation and prosecution of Smelko’s case demonstrate the effectiveness of collaboration between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in combating child exploitation.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
The Justice Department urges anyone with information about child exploitation to report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at report.cybertip.org or to call the FBI’s toll-free tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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