{"id":587297,"date":"2026-09-01T22:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587297\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:08:15","slug":"brisbane-man-guilty-over-ai-deepfake-nude-images-of-schoolgirls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587297\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane man guilty over AI deepfake nude images of schoolgirls"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former software developer who sent deepfake nude or sexualised images<\/a> of schoolgirls and women to their schools has been found guilty of 17 criminal offences.<\/p>\n

Antonio Rotondo faced Brisbane District Court on Tuesday to hear the jury’s verdict following a six-day trial.<\/p>\n

The jury found Rotondo had committed stalking and child exploitation material offences by emailing the AI-rendered images to the schools where the women and girls worked or had attended as students.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old had pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of stalking and five counts of distributing intimate images.<\/p>\n

He also pleaded not guilty to distributing child exploitation material involving an image of a 13-year-old girl modified to be sexually “degrading”.<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Where to get help for sexual violence. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The jury returned their verdicts after deliberating for six hours.<\/p>\n

Rotondo, sporting a beard and long hair and dressed in a blue short-sleeved shirt, did not visibly react to the verdicts.<\/p>\n

He said “no” when asked if he had anything to say in response to being convicted.<\/p>\n

Rotondo represented himself during the trial except for a barrister appointed by the court to cross-examine protected witnesses.<\/p>\n

‘It’s fun to just press a button and remove their clothes’<\/p>\n

Legal expert says landmark case could drive more victims to come forward as gaps in New Zealand\u2019s AI laws come under scrutiny. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

Rotondo collected public images of female staff and students from a prestigious Queensland school and models who had taken part in a fashion show, crown prosecutor Ben Jackson told the jury.<\/p>\n

He then modified the images to include nudity or sexualised elements using an artificial intelligence deepfake program.<\/p>\n

“Their clothing was partially removed or they were put into revealing lingerie, leaving little to the imagination,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Rotondo emailed the images to the administrators of multiple schools and a fashion event on September 10, 2023.<\/p>\n

A senior school staff member depicted in two images was “very distressed” by the email, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

“I would expect each (victim) will say they were horrified and particularly concerned about their online safety and their reputation,” Jackson told the jury in his opening address.<\/p>\n

Rotondo had a previous career in software development but his deepfake technique did not require specialist knowledge, the jury heard.<\/p>\n

“It’s fun to just press a button and remove their clothes. It’s like X-ray vision glasses,” Rotondo told police.<\/p>\n

Rotondo told officers the spread of deepfakes was unstoppable despite Australia’s new laws.<\/p>\n

“Every woman on Earth should live in fear of a camera, should live in fear of Facebook,” Rotondo said.<\/p>\n

“There will be nude images of everyone on the internet.”<\/p>\n

When asked why he emailed the images, Rotondo said it was for “fun” and he was “that type of person”.<\/p>\n

Rotondo did not know the woman and girls in the deepfake images, Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Most of the victims have not seen the images.<\/p>\n

Jackson asked for the sentencing to be adjourned to tomorrow so victims might attend and more material be served on Rotondo.<\/p>\n

Rotondo said he would prefer to be sentenced on Tuesday but did not nominate a reason why he would be prejudiced by the delay.<\/p>\n

Judge John Allen scheduled Rotondo’s sentencing for Wednesday and ordered he remain in custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former software developer who sent deepfake nude or sexualised images of schoolgirls and women to their schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-587297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}