A North Carolina child psychiatrist was hit with a 40-year prison sentence Wednesday for using artificial intelligence to transform innocent pictures of children into intense pornography stills.
David Tatum, 41, will also have to serve 30 years of supervised release for secretly recording multiple teenagers — including his several family members and a patient — getting undressed.
“It is horrific to believe anyone would secretly record children undressing and showering for their own sexual gratification. And when the evidence proves that person is a doctor entrusted to help children through difficult mental health situations, it is inconceivable,” Robert DeWitt, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in North Carolina, said in a statement.
The sentencing comes six months after Tatum was convicted of one count of production of child pornography, one count of transportation of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.
The child and adolescent psychiatrist spent five years collecting a trove of child pornography starting in 2016, according to evidence presented at his trial.
That year, he secretly recorded his 15-year-old cousin and other underage family members as they undressed and showered at a family vacation home in Maine.
Tatum recorded a former patient multiple times by directing a camera up her skirt during one of her therapy sessions. She had turned 18 just five days before the visit — but Tatum wrote she was only 17 in his notes, indicating he understood he was filming child pornography, according to court documents.
When his own videos were no longer enough, Tatum turned to a “deep fake” website to digitally alter clothed images of minors making them sexually explicit.
Two of the images Tatum used AI to modify were from a school dance and a photo commemorating the first day of school, officials said.
When he was finally caught in 2021, Tatum had over 1,000 child pornography titles, including videos containing the phrase “PTHC,” which stands for pre-teen hardcore, according to prosecutors.
Tatum later admitted to being a voyeur.
In addition to his sentence, Tatum was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment per count of conviction and a special assessment totaling $99,000 under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act.
After he is released from federal prison, Tatum will be required to register as a sex offender.
