A school security guard who fell victim to a traumatizing deepfake porn plot has revealed how she was forced to track down the predator herself after police were unable to find him.
Kirsty Pellant, 44, was one of four women whose faces were projected onto naked women performing sex acts on pornographic websites by 54-year-old Jonathan Bates.
Bates, a former paratrooper who retrained as a teacher, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday after uploading fake images to websites offering sexual services.
Ms Pellant’s life took a disturbing turn on February 14, 2017, when a man who had tried to arrange a date with her on a porn site arrived at her home.
The security officer, who had never created a profile on the site or posted explicit images of himself online, saw the stranger put a Valentine’s Day card in a red envelope through her letterbox.
She then received a message on LinkedIn from an account with the same name as the person who signed the card, asking why she hadn’t turned up for a date at a pub in Canterbury, Kent.
“I suspect you may be getting flooded with emails from the guys at XHamster,” he said in messages seen by The times.
The man believed the pair had exchanged messages on the porn website after viewing sexual images of her.
Kirsty Pellant, 44, was one of four women whose faces were superimposed over naked women performing sex acts on pornographic websites by 54-year-old Jonathan Bates
Former paratrooper Jonathan Bates (pictured) has been jailed for five years after he was finally identified
But he had no idea he had exchanged messages with Bates, not Ms. Pellant, on XHamster.
The man said in another message: ‘Just to say, I’m a regular guy, but with a high sex drive. By the way, did you receive a Valentine’s Day card in a red envelope?’
Despite never creating a profile, when Ms Pellant typed her name and ‘porn’ online, she was shocked to find photos of her face edited onto naked porn stars.
Bates, a former colleague of Ms Pellant’s at Canterbury, had her social media photos stolen to spoof a Facebook account and post profiles on porn sites such as PornHub.
The twisted predator also uploaded deepfake images and videos of Pellant – and three other women.
Deepfakes are created using artificial intelligence without the consent of the person depicted.
Ms Pellant was one of the women who stalked Bates online and used their photos for deepfakes. He also published their addresses, telephone numbers and work details on porn sites.
Last week, Bates was jailed for five years at Truro Crown Court after admitting stalking four women and a single charge of revenge porn, which involved images of a victim that had not been edited but published without consent .
Former paratrooper Jonathan Bates (pictured) posted deepfake porn profiles of four women
The judge also imposed a 10-year injunction banning Bates from contacting his victims.
When Ms Pellant first reported the fake images and profiles, Kent Police said they could not find the perpetrator.
Bates was only entrapped when the victims, already reeling from the trauma of the deepfakes, became internet sleuths to figure out who he was.
They reported him to Devon and Cornwall Police when he moved to Cornwall.
Ms Pellant has revealed how she was bombarded with messages from men wanting to have sex between 2017 and 2022.
She also faced abuse from people close to her who thought she was making porn while working at an elementary school.
After Bates’ conviction, she told The Times: ‘I couldn’t leave the house without fear. I didn’t know who to be afraid of and the police told me not to trust anyone around me.
‘Parents at the school where I worked thought it was me in these porn videos. It was everywhere. It completely damages your reputation and you have no control over it.”
Ms Pellant has spent the last few years scouring porn and swinger sites to make individual requests to have fake videos removed.
Bates was eventually identified as the creator of the images in 2022 after another victim realized a fake profile of herself was mutual friends with two women, including Ms Pellant, with similar explicit profiles.
She found their real social media profiles and contacted them, only to realize they all had the same online stalker.
Ms Pellant said that as former colleagues they only worked together on one protection case before he left in 2014 on “good terms”.
The trio discovered that the sites also contained images of Bates’ ex-wife. Police found nine USB sticks with personal data and photos of hundreds of women in his home.
Bates served as a soldier for fifteen years and was awarded the Northern Ireland Medal before completing an education conversion course in 2012.
A Kent Police spokesperson said: ‘Kent Police carried out an extensive and thorough investigation into a report of online harassment received in February 2017.
‘This included the work of agents specialized in online crimes, analyzing communications data and international investigations into internet organizations. The victim was kept informed the entire time.
‘After reviewing all available evidence at the time, no suspect was identified and the investigation was lodged in 2019 pending further lines of inquiry coming to light.
‘In September 2022, new information was received in relation to the case, which was reopened and officers assisted when it was later transferred to another force, where further victims were identified.
‘We are pleased that the case has now resulted in the perpetrator being jailed for these terrible crimes and we hope that the sentence will help the victims as they continue to live with the long-term consequences of these crimes.’