Australia's first deepfake pornography prosecution
William Hamish Yeates, a law student from Adelaide, became the first person prosecuted under Australian federal laws introduced in 2024 to combat deepfake pornography. He pleaded guilty to creating deepfake sexual images of a 19-year-old victim by doctoring her graduation photo and distributing them across multiple accounts on social media platform X between October 2024 and February 2025.
What happened
William Hamish Yeates, aged 20 and a law student from Netherby in Adelaide, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to two counts of creating or altering sexual material without consent between October 2024 and February 2025, and two counts of using a carriage service in a harassing or offensive way.
Yeates took the graduation photo of a 19-year-old victim and created deepfake sexual images of her, distributing the material across multiple accounts on the social media platform X.
Reported impact
The victim stated that when she first saw her graduation photo on a pornographic website she felt sick, and continues to feel sick every time she sees that photo.
She said that Yeates had taken her face, identity, and trust and turned them into a weapon against her, stripping away her dignity and exposing, altering, and sexualising her image.
Governance controls
Yeates was prosecuted under federal laws introduced in 2024 to combat adult deepfake pornography, marking the first prosecution under these laws.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.