Mum's deepfake horror as brother-in-law posted dozens of AI images of her online

A woman who had her face 'deepfaked' onto explicit images by her own brother-in-law says more needs to be done to help survivors of abuse. Sophie Parrish had not long returned from a family holiday in Turkey when she received anonymous messages from a man on who claimed her brother-in-law, Karl Marshall, had been sharing explicit videos of himself in her .

Sophie brushed off the first message and blocked the sender but the day another message came from another anonymous account. The message contained allegations regarding her brother-in-law as well as personal information herself, including her family address in Ainsdale.

But what alarmed Sophie the most was the photograph attached which showed her underwear at the end of her bed, showing distinctive bedding which had only been bought shortly before she went on holiday.

When she questioned where he got the photograph from, the anonymous user claimed Karl, who today is a convicted sexual offender who has spent time in jail for his crimes, had sent him the photograph online.

Speaking to the ECHO four years on from the ordeal, Sophie said: "I still don't know his name, but he would speak to me on the phone on Messenger and he described himself as like a honeytrap. He caught men online and would alert family members what they were up to.

"He had a lot of photos of me, just photos from my story on or from social media, and Karl had told him he had hacked my phone."

Among the videos and images which had been shared with this total stranger, via the online messenger Kick, was a video of Karl performing a sex act in Sophie's living room as well as other explicit images.

There were also "countless" images of her in underwear - she had been taking body positivity images after having two children. What was also alarming to Sophie was that screenshots showed several pieces of underwear dated back years to when she was a smaller size, ringing alarm bells as to just how long Karl had been taking photos in her .

When the family confronted Karl, Sophie said he "manipulated" her sister, his then wife, causing a rift between them.

Karl denied being the person who shared the images online, but there was one particular message which was so specific and so weird that Sophie said it caused Karl to "freeze" and realise he had been caught. The ECHO has not shared the specifics due to the intimate nature of what was shared.

Sophie said: "Karl was living in this ignorance but when I came out with that line his breathing changed. You could tell he was thinking 'I've been caught out here and I need to think quick'."

He was given 24 hours to break the news to his wife, Sophie's sister, but Sophie said he threatened to take his own life instead.

In September 2022, Sophie involved Merseyside Police after she found a .picture of a pair of her own black high heels perched on top of a man's genitals.

Sophie said: "In the days that followed all these messages I just ripped our bedroom apart. I pulled up the carpet and deep cleaned the bed, duvets got changed, stuff like that. It just felt very dirty, stained and not very nice.

"It became apparent that these shoes were nowhere to be seen."

Sophie, who is now 34, was at her cousin's gym where she regularly worked out when her cousin decided to go looking online for her abuser. She simply Googled the username Karl had been using on Kick.

What turned up was dozens of deepfake photos in which Sophie's face had been taken from innocent and publicly available photos and placed on the naked bodies of others.

She said: "The first thing that came up was a shoe fetish website and it dated back to November 9, 2014, which was the day after we moved into the house we now own. There was a photo titled 'helping my sister-in-law move house' and you had to be a member to view it but you could see the . It must have been a pair of heels that he has found when he was helping us move house.

"This thread went on for six or seven months, and all the encouraged him, egged him on to do these things, immoral things, that he shouldn't have been doing. You shouldn't be snooping around my house.

"The very last Karl posted was in July 2015 which was 'had my opportunity, couldn't resist, wow'."

Sophie continued: "My cousin came out of that website and went onto another one. This is when the colour from her cheeks drained and she just said 'I don't think you should look at this one'. When she turned the phone around there were pictures of me but they weren't my body.

"What Karl had done, he obviously didn't know how to create these deepfake images at that point, so he had uploaded hundreds of headshots of me off my , Instagram, family photos that were shared in our groupchat and he had asked people to deface them.

"There were vile . Very vulgar, very degrading, very nasty, sexualised from strangers to me - and Karl clearly loved it.

"My husband, thankfully, has never seen them and I don't blame him. Once you see those images, you can't unsee them."

Sophie's family believed Karl had had a breakdown leading to his bizarre behaviour but that fact that the messages went back so many years proved otherwise.

Sophie told the ECHO how Karl was arrested in January 2023, with police pinning their investigation on the missing black heels. However police were unable to recover the shoes so couldn't prove theft.

Karl was arrested on suspicion of malicious communication, but there was no law against deepfake pornography at the time so technically no crime had been committed.

Karl had all his devices seized but the investigation was dropped.

Sophie said: "It never went to the Crown Prosecution Service. They decided on that day there was not a case to be answered. We went and I broke into a thousand pieces. I couldn't believe it. I still can't quite believe to this day that he walked away that year with nothing.

"It broke me, without a shadow of a doubt. I was putting the kids to bed when the phone rang. When my husband came downstairs he just found me on the phone to the detective, on the floor, sobbing.

"This wasn't just me. It was like someone had set a grenade off in our family. It had pulled us all apart."

During all of this time, Karl was still in a relationship with Sophie's sister, but as the months went by the relationship broke down.

Then, 12 months after his first arrest, Sophie received a call from a detective who was investigating Karl for a different matter. The officer was looking at his arrest and questioned Sophie over the phone.

He asked whether Karl had any with her son and also asked Sophie for a photo of herself to check she wasn't on any of the devices they had seized from Karl.

The detective confirmed she wasn't, but during the conversation Sophie asked if there was any threat to her and her children. Sophie explained the detective assured her she and her children were safe, but it became clear Karl had now moved his focus onto children.

Sophie said: "It turns out what he did to me, he did exactly the same to little girls."

In October 2024, Karl Marshall, then - 47, of Rufford Road, Southport , appeared in Liverpool Crown Court where he was jailed for two years and two months.

He pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing a photograph or film of a person in an intimate state for the purpose of sexual gratification and voyeurism.

The investigation found Karl Marshall used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images and shared them online.

As part of a complex investigation, it was also found that between July 2023 and January 2024, Marshall made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology. Detective Sergeant Rory Quigley, who led the investigation, said: "The creation or sharing of digitally altered images is not a victimless crime and in many cases, such as this one, the identities of real women are used to create pornographic content.

"This is absolutely appalling and would undoubtedly cause huge distress and upset for the victims. This was a complex investigation but thankfully we were able to produce the evidence that showed that Marshall was guilty of these offences."

Sophie was invited to read a victim impact statement to the court the day her ex-brother-in-law was sentenced, outlining the pain and suffering he had caused her and her family.

"There's so much shame put on the victims, and that needs to be put on the perpetrators," Sophie said. "I would be lying if I said every day is like roses and puppies, it's not. There are days where this catches up with me.

"I don't think there are many weeks that go by where he doesn't come up in conversation."

Sophie is a florist but is now training to be a counsellor as she looks to help people after what she has been through.

Creating explicit deepfakes is now a crime and is punishable in court.

Sophie has now teamed up with Merseyside Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner to help promote their violence against women and girls campaign. In their new campaign, Taking Action, the aim is to raise awareness around tech-enabled abuse.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Lamb, Protecting Vulnerable People Unit, said: “We are seeing more offenders use technology to intimidate, monitor or control victims, and the impact of this abuse is every bit as serious as harm caused in person.

"Tech‑enabled abuse can leave victims feeling watched in their own homes, fearful using their devices, and unsure who to turn to. Our officers are committed to responding robustly to these crimes, protecting those at risk, and holding perpetrators to account. We are absolutely focused on identifying those who weaponise technology to abuse others and will use every tool available to pursue, disrupt, and bring offenders to justice.

“I want to recognise Sophie’s courage and bravery in sharing her lived experience. Speaking out is never easy, but by doing so she is helping others recognise the signs of abuse and showing victims that they are not alone.”

“By working closely with the Police and Crime Commissioner and our partners, we are strengthening our ability to identify the signs of tech‑enabled abuse earlier and provide practical safeguarding for women and girls across Merseyside. We want victims to know they will be listened to, believed, and supported, whether abuse happens offline, online, or both.”