A 20-year-old Long Island man has been indicted for allegedly taking photos from social media accounts of more than a dozen women when they were in high and middle school, altering them to make them sexually explicit and then posting them on a pornographic website, Nassau County prosecutors said Thursday.
Patrick Carey also allegedly shared their personal identifying information and encouraged website users to harass and threaten the women with sexual violence.
The Seaford man was indicted by a grand jury in late November and arraigned Thursday on felony charges of promoting a child's sexual performance, possessing a child's sexual performance and aggravated harassment as a hate crime.
According to the indictment, roughly 11 women contacted Nassau County detectives between January of this year and September to report they had found images of themselves on a pornographic website. Many of the women indicated that the images, taken when they were in high school and middle school, were re-posted on the website from their own social media platforms and altered to suggest they were engaging in sexual conduct.
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Carey allegedly altered the images using "deepfake" technology, convincingly superimposing the victims' faces on other, separate images of women engaging in sexual conduct. The images posted to the website were accompanied by personal identifying information, including full names, addresses and telephone numbers.
Separately, in November 2020, another woman reported to NCPD’s Special Victims Squad that she found a sexually explicit image of herself, taken when she was underage, on the same pornographic website.
Each of the women had attended MacArthur High School in Levittown and believed that Carey, another former student, was the individual who was altering and posting their images and contact information. Some reported to police that they had received notifications from social media that Carey had "screenshotted" some of the images that appeared altered on the website from their social media accounts.
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Levittown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tonie McDonald said the district was notified earlier Thursday of the indictment against Carey, who graduated from MacArthur in 2019. McDonald said the district would assist Nassau County authorities in their investigation as needed.
"As this matter is being handled by law enforcement agencies, any questions should be directed to them," McDonald said.
Most of the posts with images of the victims came from three distinct usernames and all of them actively posted the victims' images from roughly August 2019 until September 2021, which is when Carey was initially arrested, the indictment says. The images were being posted until within hours of that arrest, officials said.
After executing nearly two dozen search warrants on Carey’s phone, tablets, and other social media and web accounts, investigators found him to be in possession of several images of the victims, the indictment alleges. It also found he shared them to social media and on the pornographic website, prosecutors say.
"This defendant allegedly manipulated the photos of more than a dozen women, taken when they were teenagers, and posted the ‘deepfake’ images online for strangers’ sexual gratification," Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said in a statement. "His depravity deepened when he allegedly shared the victims’ personal identifying information – including their home addresses – encouraging site visitors to harass and threaten the women with sexual violence."
Prosecutors say there may potentially be other dozens of other victims and encourage anyone who feels they may have been victimized by Carey to call the Nassau County district attorney's office at 516-571-2553.
"These images are illicit and weren't consensually sent in. The people posting them are posting them without permission and that is part of the draw of this website," said Senior Investigative Counsel and Assistant District Attorney Melissa Scannell. "There are probably 50 women he did this to, so we think there are more people out there."
In addition to the felony counts, Carey is charged with stalking, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child, all misdemeanors. He faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted on the top count alone. Bail was set at $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash. Carey had to sign orders of protection agreeing not to contact the known victims.
Carey is being represented by an attorney with Legal Aid. News 4 was unable to reach her after his court appearance. The organization typically doesn't send out statements on its ongoing cases. Carey is due back in court in early January.
More on 'Deepfakes'
A “deepfake” is a video, audio or image that uses machine learning to create a convincing imitation of a real person’s likeness or voice. While some deepfakes can be innocuous, they have also been used for revenge porn, fake news and fraud.
In one case this year, a Pennsylvania mom was accused of creating deepfake videos and photos of underage girls on her daughter’s cheer squad in a prolonged effort to harass them and get them kicked off the team.
Tom Cruise became a target on TikTok as well around the same time.
Developers have raced to better understand and track deepfakes to avoid spreading misinformation. In June, AI researchers at Facebook and Michigan State University say they have developed software that can reveal where deepfakes have come from.
