Recidivist Sex Offender Sentenced for Possessing Deepfake Child Sexual Abuse Material

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced yesterday to 14 years and seven months in prison for possessing deepfake child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting numerous child celebrities.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on two separate occasions, James Smelko, 57, of Pittsburgh, possessed and accessed pictures that digitally superimposed the faces of child actors onto nude bodies and bodies engaged in sex acts. Smelko possessed the pictures at his home in Pittsburgh. After law enforcement discovered the pictures during a search of Smelko’s computer, he was charged for possessing CSAM. While pending trial, Smelko was found to have violated his conditions of pretrial release by again accessing such images after incriminating web searches and images were detected by court-mandated monitoring software installed on his cell phone.

In November 2023, a federal jury in Pittsburgh convicted Smelko of one count of possessing child pornography and one count of accessing with the intent to view child pornography.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan for the Western District of Pennsylvania; and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Pittsburgh Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Mitchell for the Western District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.