Home / Crime and Justice / Teenager's AI Stalking Terrified College Staff
Teenager's AI Stalking Terrified College Staff
14 Jan
Summary
- A 19-year-old created deepfake images and AI chat versions of staff.
- He was given a three-year community order and unpaid work.
- The perpetrator covertly filmed over 1,000 students and staff.
A teenager's extensive stalking campaign involving deepfake images and AI personas has resulted in a three-year community order. Ethan Fenwick, 19, targeted two staff members at Petroc College in north Devon, using technology to create disturbing content designed to 'unsettle and terrify them'. His actions led to him pleading guilty to two counts of stalking.
Fenwick's methods included physical approaches and the creation of AI chat versions of his victims, utilizing covertly captured audio and pictures. A police investigation uncovered over 1,000 covert images of students and staff from his devices, many digitally altered. One particularly chilling example involved placing a victim's head onto images of explicit sexual activity.
Exeter Crown Court sentenced Fenwick to a community order, including 150 hours of unpaid work, and imposed lifetime restraining orders. Police described the case as 'extremely troubling,' highlighting how the victims were left frightened and distressed, with one staff member leaving her job as a consequence of the sustained harassment.
