WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A resident of Cottonwood Heights was arrested by West Valley City police on Tuesday for allegedly distributing and creating child sexual abuse materials. According to investigators, 45-year-old Russell Kenneth Gatrell also admitted to using artificial intelligence to create the materials.
Court documents for the case reveal that between June 25 and June 27, members of the FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force began investigating an individual who was sharing CSAM. Investigators say they received 139 files from an IP address in Cottonwood Heights. That IP address was later determined to belong to the residence of Gatrell.
On Tuesday, the task force executed a residential search warrant at Gatrell's residence. During the search, Gatrell admitted to viewing, downloading, and sharing child sexual abuse materials from his home.
Gatrell also admitted to storing the materials on upwards of 15 hard drives with 280 terabytes of storage. Gatrell told detectives that he estimated the total amount of material at over 100 GB and was using AI to generate more.
Russell Kenneth Gatrell faces 5 charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
