Man accused of making deepfakes of students told police it was 'like X-ray vision'

Man accused of making sexualised deepfakes of students told police it was 'funny', jury hears In short: Antonio Rotondo has pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to more than a dozen charges, including 11 counts of stalking and five counts of distributing intimate images. Crown prosecutor Ben Jackson told the jury Mr Rotondo sent an email in 2023 containing numerous images to several recipients, including two Brisbane private schools. What's next? The trial continues. A man accused of making sexualised deepfake images of former Brisbane high school students and staff told police he did it because it was "funny" and described it as being akin to "X-ray vision glasses", a jury has heard. Antonio Rotondo pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to more than a dozen charges, including 11 counts of stalking and five counts of distributing intimate images. He is also fighting one charge of distributing child exploitation material. Crown prosecutor Ben Jackson told the jury in September 2023, when Mr Rotondo was living in the Philippines, he sent an email containing numerous images to several recipients, including two Brisbane private schools. Mr Jackson told the jury the images depicted current and former female students and staff at one of the schools which had been "altered in a digital way". "To either remove some of their clothing entirely, or to replace that clothing with very revealing lingerie," he said. The jury heard he did the same thing with images of various models who had been part of Brisbane Fashion Week and sent those to another woman involved in that event. He also uploaded 16 of the deepfake images to a website that he ran, the jury heard. Mr Jackson told the jury the feelings of complainants were not ordinarily relevant to an offence at trial, but in this case, they would be. He said jurors would only need to determine that the offending would "cause someone in normal circumstances some distress". "[The complainants] will tell you in their own words how they felt," he said. The jury heard Mr Rotondo spoke with police in the days after he arrived in Australia in October 2023. Mr Jackson told the jury he gave them "a full and frank set of statements" in a recorded interview. "Which the crown says amount to admissions … that would count against him in his criminal trial," he said. The jury heard Mr Rotondo told police he was the user of the email account and accepted he had sent the images and he controlled the website where they were uploaded. He also admitted he had altered the images using a website, the jury heard. Jury hears accused told police 'it's funny' Mr Jackson told the jury in the police interview, which will be played during the trial, Mr Rotondo told officers making deepfakes was "just a hobby". He said Mr Rotondo explained he did it because it was "just the type of person" he was. "I'm at the stage of my life where I really don't care, I think it's funny," he said Mr Rotondo told police. "I don't know the people … never met them, never will meet them." Mr Jackson told the jury Mr Rotondo also stated in his police interview "you cannot stop deepfakes" and "everyone should live in fear" of them. "Every woman on earth should live in fear of a camera," he said Mr Rotondo told police. "You cannot stop it … I know the laws are trying to stop it in Australia, but it will not stop." "From a guy point of view, from a practical point of view, it's fun to just press a button and remove their clothes, it's like X-ray vision glasses." "If there are services that exist that do it … and there's software that's available that makes it possible, it's acceptable to a percentage of community to make deepfakes." The trial continues.