Christopher Savage, a former head of Lowood State High School in Queensland, Australia, has been sentenced to six years in jail for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create and trade nude images of schoolgirls. The 38-year-old admitted to storing over 53,000 images and videos on his devices.
Offences and Investigation
Savage was arrested in September 2024, and police found grotesque images across eight electronic devices in his home. The court heard that he was not working at the school when he took the pictures of the schoolgirls he later altered with AI. It is alleged that children as young as infants were shown in the sexual abuse material.
Between 2023 and 2024, Savage uploaded pictures of schoolgirls and a woman he found on social media into an AI tool to depict them naked. He traded the AI-generated images with 13 other users on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, exchanging them for over 1,100 other child abuse images.
Court Proceedings and Victim Impact
Ipswich District Court heard that Savage voiced his sexual attraction to children online, and in one message told another user he wanted to “f*** [that child] so bad.” He also admitted to masturbating to the AI-generated images.
Investigators have identified more than 20 victims between the ages of 12 and 17 who were used in the teacher's AI creations. In an emotional impact statement, one victim said the abuse coming from someone she thought she could trust made her feel sick.
“I'm here to express how negatively you have impacted my life and many others,” the victim said. “Knowing that someone I knew and thought I trusted could do this to me and others makes me feel sick. When I first started to talk to people about this, all anyone could say was that they were extremely sorry and they felt so bad for me. Because of you, I will never be able to maintain a healthy relationship with anyone, especially men.”
Sentencing and Consequences
During sentencing, Judge Craig Chowdhury said the teacher had abused his position of trust. The judge stated: “You spent considerable time and effort engaging in cumulative child pornography but also engaging in going around and photographing these children who you should be looking out for. You mastered your own destiny and mastered your own domain, and you made your choice to go down this dark road.”
Savage has been sentenced to six years in jail and will be eligible for parole in early 2029. His teaching registration has been suspended.
