William Hamish Yeates, a 20-year-old law student, has become the first person prosecuted under Australia's 2024 federal deepfake pornography laws. He pleaded guilty to creating fake sexual images of a woman's graduation photo and distributing them across multiple accounts on X between October 2024 and February 2025. This landmark case is significant as it tests newly introduced criminal provisions designed to combat adult deepfake pornography.

Yeates committed the offences when aged 18, facing four charges including creating or altering sexual material without consent and using a carriage service in a harassing or offensive manner. At sentencing submissions, his 19-year-old victim delivered an emotional impact statement confronting him about the lasting psychological harm, whilst Yeates read an apology expressing remorse and self-loathing. His defence counsel cited his youth, early guilty plea, remorse and mental health diagnoses, though the prosecutor argued that a custodial sentence was necessary as a general deterrent, emphasising that such material persists indefinitely online. Judge Anne Barnett will determine sentencing on 22 October.