ManitobaJeffrey Sewell, 42, was sentenced to more than three years in prison after admitting to making computer-generated child sexual abuse imagery and distributing the content online, including videos he recorded of himself having sex with child-like sex dolls.Possession of child sexual abuse imagery is abuse whether ‘real or computer-generated,’ judge saysBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2025 5:56 PM EST | Last Updated: 9 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Jeffrey Sewell, 42, pleaded guilty to possessing and making child sexual abuse imagery, including computer-generated materials. His lawyer was seeking a two-year sentence. (Trevor Brine/CBC) WARNING: This story includes details about child sexual abuse.A Winnipeg man is going to prison after admitting to making computer-generated child sexual abuse imagery and distributing content online that included videos he recorded of himself having sex with child-like dolls that he illegally imported.Jeffrey Sewell, 42, was sentenced to 3½ years in prison for possession of child sexual abuse material, as well as three years to be served simultaneously for making images and videos using artificial intelligence.”Possession of CSAM [child sexual abuse material] is child sex abuse; this is true whether involving real or computer-generated images,” provincial court Judge Julie Frederickson said Monday in court in Winnipeg. “The production of such material is fuelled by demand, creating a relentless cycle of abuse, normalization of such images and increased risk to children.” Sewell, 42, previously pleaded guilty to one count of possessing and making child sexual abuse imagery. His lawyer Reed Sitarik was seeking a two-year sentence.Border agents intercepted a sex doll last year designed to look like an anatomically correct pre-pubescent child. Sewell had made the purchase and was importing it from abroad.When he was arrested in August 2024, police found four sex dolls at Sewell’s home, including two “miniature” dolls that resembled children between the ages of four and 10, court heard. One was under the covers of a bed wearing pink pajamas, socks and underwear and holding a stuffed animal.Police also found nearly 10,000 images and 230 videos, including a “significant” number featuring real children from existing collections online of child sexual abuse material known to police, court heard. There were also computer-generated images Sewell made himself, court heard.He was a member of a child sexual abuse imagery online chat group and an online role playing game set in a high school where players pose as teachers, Frederickson said.”He deliberately sought out child sex dolls based on ages and heights. He progressed from viewing to making computer-generated CSAM, to recording himself sexually using the child dolls,” Frederickson said.”His moral blameworthiness is high.”‘Deeply disturbing’ contentIn Canada, it is illegal to possess child-like sex dolls under child sexual abuse and exploitation imagery legislation. Sewell said he felt “morally conflicted” when he was first exposed to the material a decade ago, court heard. After being arrested, he sought out counselling and got involved with a church community. The reverend wrote a letter of support to the courts on Sewell’s behalf, court heard.Frederickson said though Sewell should get credit for going to counselling, he has also shown limited insight into the gravity of his crimes. “He knew that his behaviour wasn’t harmless,” she said. “He described the moral quandary he felt when first exposed to CSAM many years ago. What is concerning is that not only did he persist, but his behaviour over time has escalated.”Some of the “deeply disturbing” content recovered on his devices showed young girls, real and computer-generated, “crying or trying to avoid what was being inflicted on them,” Frederickson said. Three victim impact statements submitted to the court were from children whose images were in Sewell’s possession. They were not children he knew, court heard.One impact statement was from a parent of one of the victims.The Canadian Centre for Child Protection also submitted a statement describing harms it says may stem from computer-generated child sexual abuse imagery and the possession of child-like sex dolls, including “cognitive distortions” and “distorted fantasies” that children depicted in videos enjoy being exploited, said Frederickson. All of the statements reflect a theme, the judge said.”Even though the original offender may have been caught, these children, some of them who are now adults, continue to be victimized by the incessant sharing of their images,” she said. “Despite efforts to have them removed, they remain on the dark web, traded and collected by pedophiles.”AI imagery will become harder to control: expertFrederickson said in cases involving child sexual abuse imagery the courts have suggested denunciation and deterrents ought to trump rehabilitation prospects of the defendant.This fall, the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged child pornography, now described in law as child sexual abuse imagery, “destroys countless innocent lives,” but it ruled one-year mandatory minimum sentences for possessing or accessing child sexual abuse imagery were unconstitutional in two cases of men who pleaded guilty to the offence. That drew the ire of several politicians, including Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.On Tuesday, the Liberal government tabled a new bill it says would restore mandatory minimum sentences.Neil McArthur, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, said AI-generated child sex abuse imagery is likely to become harder to control.It isn’t yet clear what relationship may exist between the possession of computer-generated child sex abuse material and potential safety risks to children in the real world, McArthur said.Many who use such materials won’t go on to offend children, but “that doesn’t make it OK to have,” he said.”It’s very controversial … but there are some therapists, at least, who think that this may have some therapeutic uses — not to be used by people freely, but within a specific kind of therapeutic context,” said McArthur.”I think we do need to regulate it, I think we do need to crack down, but we also need to allow further study and further understanding of how this material impacts people.”ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce HoyeWith files from Radio-Canada’s Catherine Moreau
Judge sentences Winnipeg man to 3 years for AI child sex abuse imagery, child-like sex dolls
