East Patchogue man caught with more than 50 AI-generated child sex abuse images, police

Authorities nationwide have increasingly pursued such cases, as AI image generators make it easier to alter real photos or fabricate new ones

Police arrested an East Patchogue man Thursday after a search of his home turned up more than 50 AI-generated images of child sexual abuse, cops said.

Nicholas Zavesky, 43, of 24 Knot St. was nabbed about 7 a.m. and charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child, Suffolk Police said.

The arrest came after a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Suffolk Police’s Digital Forensics Unit executed a search warrant of Zavesky’s home on Aug. 13, seizing multiple electronic devices, police said.

Investigators said the devices contained child sexual abuse images that had been artificially altered using AI after being lifted from social media platforms.

Zavesky is expected to be arraigned Thursday at Suffolk First District Court in Central Islip.

Why AI-generated images are treated as a crime

Police and prosecutors nationwide have increasingly pursued cases like Zavesky’s as AI image generators make it easier to alter real photos or fabricate new ones depicting child sexual abuse.

The Department of Justice has said federal child exploitation laws cover this material even when the “children” in an image were never photographed being abused, or don’t exist at all — because the images still depict, and can be used to normalize and encourage, the sexual abuse of children.

Steven Grocki, who leads the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, told the Associated Press that prosecutors need to “signal early and often that it is a crime, that it will be investigated and prosecuted when the evidence supports it.”

New York law, like federal law, does not require that a real, identifiable child be depicted for prosecutors to bring charges — an image that appears to show a real minor engaged in sexual conduct, even if digitally altered or AI-generated, can support charges such as the ones filed against Zavesky.

_{Top: Photo by Thomas Lefebvre}