Description: Queensland police in Australia allege that former A.B. Paterson College teacher Robert John Thomas used a work-issued laptop and AI software to create explicit images depicting staff members and students. The school discovered and quarantined the material in October 2025, dismissed Thomas, and reported the matter to police. Authorities said there was no evidence he shared the images; he was charged with child-exploitation and computer-misuse offences in July 2026.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: The incident ID date is 10/30/2025, based on the date Queensland Police said it received A.B. Paterson College's report concerning alleged misuse of a restricted computer. The College dismissed the teacher on 10/31/2025; the AI-generated nature of the material was publicly disclosed on 07/23/2026, and police announced charges on 07/24/2026. The incident ID was created on 07/30/2026.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Synthetic media generation technology developers , Synthetic image generation technology developers and Deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Teachers , Synthetic media creators , Robert John Thomas , Educators and Deepfake creators, which harmed Teachers , Educators , Victims of non-consensual deepfakes , Victims of deepfake child abuse , Victims of deepfake abuse , Students , School employees , Privacy , Minors , Epistemic integrity , Educational communities , A.B. Paterson College students and staff depicted in alleged AI-generated explicit images and A.B. Paterson College.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology , Synthetic image generation technology and Deepfake technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1612
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-10-30
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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Police are investigating explicit AI-generated content falsely depicting members of the A.B. Paterson school community, the school has said.
In a letter sent to parents of A.B. Paterson College on Thursday afternoon, principal Joanne Sheehy…
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A Gold Coast school teacher has been charged after allegedly generating explicit images of children and adults using artificial intelligence.
Robert John Thomas, 73, a former teacher at A.B. Paterson College in Arundel, has been accused of …
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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