North Carolina child psychiatrist sentenced to 40 years for filming minors and using artificial intelligence to make child pornography: “inconceivable”

A North Carolina child psychiatrist was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for using artificial intelligence to transform innocent images of children into intense photographs of pornography.

David Tatum, 41, will also have to serve 30 years of supervised release for secretly recording several teenagers, including several members of his family and a patient, while they undressed.

“It is horrible to believe that someone would secretly film children undressing and showering for their own sexual gratification. And when the evidence shows that that person is a doctor charged with helping children in difficult mental health situations, it is unconscionable,” Robert DeWitt, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina, said in a statement.

The sentencing comes six months after Tatum was found guilty of one count of production of child pornography, one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

The child and adolescent psychiatrist spent five years collecting a trove of child pornography starting in 2016, according to evidence presented at his trial.

That year, he secretly recorded his 15-year-old cousin and other underage family members as they undressed and showered at a family vacation home in Maine.

Tatum recorded a former patient several times directing a camera up her skirt during one of her therapy sessions. She had turned 18 just five days before the visit, but Tatum wrote that she was only 17 in her notes, indicating that he understood she was filming child pornography, according to court documents.

When his own videos were no longer enough, Tatum turned to a “deep fake” website to digitally alter clothed images of minors, making them sexually explicit.

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Two of the images Tatum used AI to modify were from a school dance and a photo commemorating the first day of school, authorities said.

When he was finally caught in 2021, Tatum had more than 1,000 titles of child pornography, including videos containing the phrase “PTHC,” which stands for preteen hardcore, according to prosecutors.

Tatum later admitted to being a voyeur.

In addition to his sentence, Tatum was ordered to pay a special assessment of $100 per conviction count and a special assessment totaling $99,000 under the Amy, Vicky and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.

After being released from federal prison, Tatum will be required to register as a sex offender.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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