Benjamin T. Staiger

A Butler County man distributed artificially-generated child sexual abuse material and stalked a former partner by posting intimate photos of them, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office announced Friday, Oct. 24.

Benjamin T. Staiger, 20, of Harmony, was charged with 42 felony counts of child sexual abuse, felony use of a communication facility and misdemeanor stalking, invasion of privacy and unlawful dissemination of intimate images.

The attorney general’s office said it identified several victims depicted in Staiger’s photos on X. It said some of the victims were children who were photographed, then were artificially-altered into “deepfakes,” which are images or recordings convincingly altered to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.

The photos appeared on X in recent months, according to the attorney general’s office. The photographs depicted the children engaged in intimate activities.

Staiger was arrested at his home Thursday and arraigned Friday, when bail was set at $100,000. Bail was posted, and the defendant will be on electronic monitoring, according to the attorney general’s office.

The case will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Angela Raver of the Child Predator Section.