Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Darrin Bell has been arrested on suspicion of possessing little one sexual abuse movies, together with AI-generated materials.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Workplace stated it obtained an alert from the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters that somebody was importing 18 recordsdata of kid intercourse abuse movies.
Officers stated a complete of 134 movies of kid intercourse abuse materials was positioned and linked to the identical account, which they stated was owned and managed by Bell, 49.
Police served a search warrant at Bell’s residence in California on Wednesday and stated they recovered proof associated to the case and computer-generated materials.
He was arrested on suspicion of importing and possessing little one intercourse abuse materials. He’s presently in custody being held on a $1m bail and appeared in courtroom on Friday.
The sheriff’s workplace stated he’s the primary individual to be charged within the county beneath an amended California legislation which makes little one intercourse abuse materials generated by synthetic intelligence unlawful.
Described by the sheriff’s workplace as a “well-known cartoonist”, Bell gained the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning as a freelancer – the primary Black artist to win the award.
The Pulitzer web site stated his “beautiful and daring editorial cartoons” lined “issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration”.
Of their report overlaying his arrest, the Publish stated it might droop Candorville from its comics line-up.
In line with his web site, he began cartooning in 1995.
