Targets of a man’s deepfake exploitation campaign preying on women and girls, including a 13-year-old child, will not let the vile acts stand in the way of life, a court has been told.
At the beginning of his Brisbane District Court trial in August, Antonio Rotondo pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of stalking, five counts of distributing intimate images and one count of distributing child exploitation material relating to a 13-year-old girl.
In a matter of hours, a jury found him guilty on all fronts.
“I’m scared of a future where deepfake pornography is normalised for myself, for my daughters and for girls and women more broadly,” one of Rotondo’s 17 victims wrote to the court at his sentencing.
“I do not want women to respond to this technology by disappearing.
“Women and girls should not have to share less, dress differently, avoid photographs or withdraw from public life in order to protect themselves.”
During the trial, the court was told the now convicted child sex offender targeted women and teenage girls, using image manipulator software to alter photos of his victims, removing their clothes or replacing them with lingerie.
Among his victims were Brisbane Fashion Week models and staff and students from an elite private girls’ school.
His youngest victim was just 13 years old.
Many of the victims said the photographs Rotondo exploited commemorated special moments from schooling milestones, spiritual events and career highlights.
“My heart breaks to think that this has happened to many other girls,” one girl told the court in a statement.
“We don’t deserve this.”
Rotondo emailed the insidious images to Brisbane Fashion Week organisers, the girls’ school and private boys’ schools including Brisbane Grammar School and St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace.
He published a large swathe of the images online, with many of his victims expressing fear over how widely shared the false depictions had become.
Many of the women and girls told the court they felt “humiliated, violated, powerless” by Rotondo and had struggled with ongoing mental health and social struggles.
Some victims said they began self-censoring after being told of the images.
“The experience violated my dignity and my sense of personal safety,” one victim wrote to the court.
“I had no control over who has access to it or how it might be used.”
Rotondo told police, in an interview played to the court at trial, his conduct should be expected in the modern age.
“From a practical point of view you cannot stop deepfakes. Everyone should live in fear of deepfakes,” he said.
“Every woman on Earth should live in fear of a camera, live in fear of Facebook. There will be nude images of everyone on the internet or mobile devices.
“It’s fun to just press a button and remove their clothes. It’s like X-ray vision glasses.”
Crown prosecutor Ben Jackson at the sentencing said intimate deepfake crime was rising.
“It could be said what was a trickle (at the time of Rotondo’s arrest) is slowly becoming a flood,” Mr Jackson said.
“What is frightening, which is what Mr Rotondo said himself to police, is how easy it is to do … how many programs there are … how easy it is to on-send them.
“It is a fear that many in the community have.”
At sentencing, Rotondo, representing himself, argued perceived inaccuracies and contradictions within his trial, at one point wrongly referring to the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019.
Judge John Allen KC lambasted Rotondo for his callous remarks and insensitivity.
“What has become demonstrably clear – you have absolutely no insight into the seriousness of your offending,” he said.
“You have no empathy for the victims of your offending.
“You have no remorse whatsoever for your offending.
“It doesn’t take much to attach (deepfake images) to an email or post them to a Facebook gallery, but as can be seen, the consequences of those easy and quick actions can be profound and long lasting.”
Rotondo was sentenced to two years imprisonment and granted immediate parole with two years of presentence custody declared time served.
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