Sherwood man sentenced over child abuse images, including AI-generated files

A 43-year-old Nottingham man has received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting offences involving indecent images of children and prohibited images, including more than 2,300 files prosecutors said were AI-generated.

Nicholas Cliff pleaded guilty at Nottingham Crown Court to two counts of making indecent images and one count of possessing prohibited images. Judge Stuart Rafferty KC gave him a 12-month probation requirement and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement alongside the suspended sentence.

The court heard that police seized devices from Cliff’s home in Mapperley Street, Sherwood, on 2 April 2025 and examined them. Prosecutor Abigail Hill said investigators found 407 category B indecent images, 987 category C images and 2,315 prohibited images of children, which she said had been generated using artificial intelligence.

Hill said some of the indecent images showed babies as young as seven months old. The court was told Cliff had previously been dealt with for having indecent images of children: in February 2020 he received a community order and a sexual harm prevention order. He has one previous conviction, the court heard.

The judge imposed a new sexual harm prevention order lasting 10 years and extended Cliff’s requirement to remain on the sex offender register by a further 10 years.

During sentencing, Rafferty said Cliff had been given an earlier opportunity to avoid custody but had returned to collecting images. He warned that any further offending would lead to prison. The sentence handed down was suspended, meaning the prison term will not be served immediately, subject to the conditions of the order.

Defence barrister Anthony Cheung told the court Cliff had described his behaviour as “stupid” and said he had spiralled after the death of his grandfather. The judge rejected bereavement as an excuse, saying Cliff knew what he was doing and needed to understand the seriousness of the offending.

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