Woman victim of deepfake porn by family member helps change law

By Anna Emmett Martin

When Sophie Parrish opened Facebook in September 2022, she found an anonymous message which claimed her own brother-in-law, Karl Marshall, had been making "deepfake" porn images of her.

At first, Sophie discovered pictures and videos taken in her home, without her knowledge, had been posted on messaging platform Kik.

Then a quick Google search of the username uncovered a series of digitally altered images, with her face superimposed onto the naked bodies of other women.

The images of Sophie had been posted online as far back as 2014, but it would take years of campaigning and another victim coming forward before her brother-in-law, 49, was brought to justice.

There was no law against deepfake pornography at the time so technically no crime had been committed - and Karl denied wrongdoing.

But when detectives investigated him for more crimes years later, against other people, he was finally jailed.

On Oct. 22, 2024, Marshall appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and pleaded guilty to voyeurism, sharing intimate photos and making indecent images of a child.

Sophie was invited to court to face him down, and share a victim impact statement.

Merseyside Police said that between July 2023 and January 2024, Marshall created 266 sexually explicit deepfake images using AI and the faces of real women and children before sharing them online.

He was sentenced to two years and two months in prison.

Speaking to Key Witness: The Moment, Sophie, a florist from Southport, Merseyside, said the anonymous messages from a stranger "changed everything".

Sophie said: "It was like flicking a switch and it can never, ever go back to what it was before."

The Facebook message from the stranger said, "We need to talk", followed by a disturbing photo.

The image showed Sophie's lingerie on her own bed, but she had not taken or sent the image to anyone.

"The panic started to rise," she said.

"I asked, 'How do you have this?'

"And he replied, 'Karl sent it to me.'

"He then sent through screenshots of the conversation between him and Karl."

Sophie said the stranger had received the photo from Marshall while speaking on Kik - as well as videos.

"There were videos... that Karl had sent him, pleasuring himself in my house," she said.

"It wasn't the person that we knew."

Sophie later found out that the anonymous tipster was a "honeytrap" who would catch men online and expose their behavior to their families.

Marshall had been part of Sophie's family for 12 years by the time his actions were exposed.

Sophie said: "We were just a normal family.

"My husband and Karl were very close.

"They used to go to soccer matches together, they'd play bowls, we'd go out for family meals."

It was this proximity that Karl would go on to exploit.

"He would come and go.

"He would let the dog out or, if we were on holiday, he'd come and put the trash out.

"I had no reason not to trust him."

After finding out about the images, Sophie says her mom confronted Marshall, whose "breathing changed".

"He knew we knew... and then I knew, without any uncertainty, that it was 100% true," Sophie said.

She also immediately had her locks changed but "still didn't feel safe" and "hated" being home alone.

At this point, Sophie still didn't know about the deepfake porn images.

This changed when she confided in her cousin, who suggested they search Marshall's Kik username on Google.

"She said, 'You need to see, but I don't want to show you,'" Sophie said.

"There was this photo that looked like me - it was my head, but it wasn't my body."

"It's very strange to see yourself in that capacity.

"It's like someone's undressed you in front of your eyes and you've had no say.

"I really could not get my head around the fact that he could be so vindictive and so nasty.

"I don't know who's seen those images. I don't know how far they've spread.

"It was someone who was meant to love me like a little sister. I was little sis.

"It didn't make sense, and I didn't think he could be so cruel."

However, when Sophie reported Marshall to the police, she learned that there wasn't yet a law in place to cover deepfake pornography.

Marshall was arrested in January 2023, but despite all his devices being seized, he had technically committed no crime.

The police dropped their investigation.

She said: "I couldn't get my head around the fact that, had someone taken an image of me naked themselves and uploaded it, that's illegal.

"But because someone's created it digitally, the same protection didn't follow.

"It just felt like it didn't matter.

"My voice didn't matter. My opinion on what he'd done – it didn't matter. My body didn't matter.

"He was just a free man and just allowed to go on and continue his life like nothing had happened."

This motivated Sophie to fight for change.

She began a petition calling on the government to make it illegal to create and share explicit deepfake images without consent.

To her surprise, her petition gained widespread public and political attention, and in January 2024, the sharing of non-consensual explicit deepfake images was criminalized.

Then, just when Sophie thought it was "all over", she received a call from a detective.

She was informed that another victim had come forward, giving the police grounds to rearrest Marshall now that the law had been updated.

He was rearrested on Jan. 30, 2024, and although he couldn't be charged for his historic actions against Sophie, she was invited to read her victim impact statement at his sentencing.

"He had to listen to how much it had affected every aspect of my life," Sophie told Key Witness.

"As a family, we will never go back to what we were before... we have to heal and put the broken pieces back together."

As of February 2026, it is also a criminal offense to create or request deepfake intimate images of adults without consent.

Key Witness: The Moment is the latest collaboration between social producers Creatorville and content agency SWNS.

New episodes are released weekly on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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