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A college student who stalked two members of staff and filmed his victims to create deep-fake sexual images has been sentenced.<\/p>\n
A court heard one staff member at Petroc college was left feeling \u201csuicidal\u201d while the other was signed off work with anxiety after Ethan Fenwick, 19, stalked them both physically and online.<\/p>\n
Fenwick made \u201cconcerning\u201d comments relating to race and misogyny and demonstrated \u201ca hatred\u201d for the LGBTQIA+ community, according to police. Officers also revealed the student used AI software to create virtual versions of the women, which he would talk to.<\/p>\n
The teenager, of Swan Avenue, Tiverton, appeared at Exeter Crown Court for sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty in September to two counts of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was handed a three-year community order consisting of a rehabilitation activity requirement and 150 hours of unpaid work. The court also imposed lifetime restraining orders and a sexual harm prevention order.<\/p>\n
Detective Constable Andrew Stacey, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said Fenwick\u2019s behaviour was designed to \u201cunsettle and ultimately terrify his victims\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Laura Collier said the student had a \u201clongstanding diagnosis of autism\u201d, and a psychological report described how the teenager was \u201cunaware of how much knowledge you lack about normative and permitted social behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
The judge added Fenwick was \u201cnot someone who would cope well in a custodial environment\u201d and decided a \u201clengthy community order is the most appropriate disposal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Petroc, now North Devon College, sits within the Exeter and North Devon Colleges Group following a merger with Exeter College this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A group spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases relating to students or staff but added: \u201cSafeguarding is paramount to us, and the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff underpins everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stalking began with prom request<\/p>\n
The first victim reported Fenwick\u2019s behaviour in July 2024, after he stopped her in a corridor and asked to take her to a prom. Fenwick, who was 17 at the time, was told the request was inappropriate.<\/p>\n
When Fenwick turned 18 he asked the same woman on a date, who then caught him secretly taking a photo of her after she had again turned him down. He also sent her a friend request via social media.<\/p>\n
The incident was reported to the college and Fenwick was instructed not to make further contact with her.<\/p>\n
However, in November 2024, the victim received friend requests from two new Instagram accounts.<\/p>\n
One account biography stated the person behind it was \u201cplanning on kidnapping\u201d both victims to \u201cmake them mine\u201d. The second stated the owner of the account wanted to \u201cpin her against a wall to use her body\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police arrested Fenwick after suspecting the accounts belonged to him and seized multiple digital devices from his home.<\/p>\n
Officers obtained records from Petroc college\u2019s safeguarding lead that revealed Fenwick had made concerning comments about race and misogyny. Further records revealed he had been removed from another school and youth centre due to an \u201cunhealthy obsession\u201d with a teacher and youth worker.<\/p>\n
Hidden filming and deepfakes<\/p>\n
Police then spoke to other members of Petroc college staff. One told of Fenwick\u2019s obsessive behaviour towards her, including deliberately moving chairs to position himself uncomfortably close.<\/p>\n
The court heard Fenwick would \u201cmove to be near her\u201d in the college common room and showed her \u201cgraphic and violent anim\u00e9 videos which caused her significant concern\u201d.<\/p>\n
The second victim in the case said she became aware of multiple occasions where Fenwick appeared to be filming the first victim.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police said both staff members were left frightened and distressed.<\/p>\n
One of the victims read a personal statement to the court, disclosing how the ordeal left her feeling \u201csuicidal\u201d. The second victim was prescribed medication for anxiety and depression and signed off from work.<\/p>\n
Judge Collier told Fenwick: \u201cYour behaviour has deeply affected the lives of two women during the course of their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are entitled to go to work and feel safe and respected. No one has the right to take that from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators linked social media accounts used to message the victims to Fenwick\u2019s home IP address. Officers also discovered Fenwick had attempted to conceal his activity by creating fake Instagram accounts and false persona email addresses.<\/p>\n
Fenwick\u2019s laptop was examined by a digital forensic unit which uncovered a \u201chuge number\u201d of pictures and videos featuring staff members and students aged 16 to 18.<\/p>\n
A police spokesperson said: \u201cMany of the images were digitally altered, collaged, and combined with pictures taken from social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticularly chilling examples involved the head of one of the victims being placed next to porn stars having sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police also found that Fenwick had secretly recorded his victims\u2019 voices and used online tools to locate all social media accounts linked to them and others.<\/p>\n
Using the covertly captured images and audio, Fenwick created AI-generated versions of his victims on a website that allowed him to interact with them through a chat function.<\/p>\n
Det Con Stacey said: \u201cEthan Fenwick\u2019s victims \u2013 who were simply trying to do their jobs \u2013 were left distressed and concerned by his behaviour which was designed to unsettle and ultimately terrify them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis investigation was highly digitally focused and employed a number of tactics to uncover a huge collection of images, videos and other digital evidence which were secretly captured, collaged and edited without the knowledge of the subjects.<\/p>\n
\u201cFenwick used AI and other advanced software to manipulate the contents of his collections in a hugely concerning manner \u2013 including in a sexual way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope his victims can feel some closure and safeguarding from the sentencing and can now move forward with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More from this theme Recent articles A college student who stalked two members of staff and filmed his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,50,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-373007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}