Brendan Clarke-Smith column: Law changes will help protect women from various forms of abuse

Under the new offence, those who create these horrific images without consent face a criminal record and an unlimited fine. If the image is then shared more widely offenders could be sent to jail.

The new law will mean that if someone creates a sexually explicit deepfake, even if they have no intent to share it but purely want to cause alarm, humiliation or distress to the victim, they will be committing a criminal offence.

It will also strengthen existing offences, as if a person both creates this kind of image and then shares it, the CPS could charge them with two offences, potentially leading to their sentence being increased.

Deepfake images have become more prevalent in recent years, with images being viewed millions of times a month across the world. The fake images and videos are made to look hyper-realistic with the victim usually unaware and unable to give their consent to being sexualised in such a way.

This is the latest step in a huge programme of work aimed at tackling this emerging and deeply distressing form of abuse towards women and girls.

The government has made it a priority to better protect women from physical, emotional and online abuse through changes to the law.

These changes in the Criminal Justice Bill will build on the existing ‘upskirting’ offence, making it a criminal offence to intentionally take or record an intimate image or film without consent.

The government has also re-classified violence against women and girls as a national threat, meaning the police must prioritise their response to it, just as they do with threats like terrorism - as well as ongoing work to tackle image-based abuse.

In March the first person was sentenced under the new Cyberflashing offence, which came into force in January via the Online Safety Act.

Nicholas Hawkes, who was 39 at the time of sentencing, sent images of his genitals to a 15-year-old girl and a woman, and received a sentence of more than a year in prison.

In 2022, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 was amended to extend voyeurism offences to cover non-consensual images of breastfeeding.

As part of wider government work to protect women and girls, cowards who kill their partners with sexual violence will also face longer behind bars.