The Nova Scotia man who created nude deepfakes of five of his former high school classmates is being sued by one of those women.

None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been tested in court, but the details in the suit provide some insight into what allegedly transpired between the man and the five women.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax, the man started following the woman on both Instagram and Facebook when they were both high school students attending the same Halifax-area high school.

He kept following her after graduation. The lawsuit stresses that there was no personal relationship between the two.

The man asked the woman for help contacting some of their female classmates. Following a conversation with another one of the women, the woman in this lawsuit blocked the man on all of her social media platforms.

In February 2024, the lawsuit says the woman discovered that the man had created what was described as a “synthetic intimate image” of her and shared it with at least one of their former classmates. The man claimed that the woman had actually provided him with the image.

The synthetic image had been created from a photo showing four women together. It had been cropped to only show two of the women, who were both minors at the time the original image was made.

The doctored image showed them with their breasts exposed. According to the lawsuit, the woman was readily identifiable in the image.

As a result of these actions, the man was accused of distributing intimate images, in violation of the Criminal Code. But a judge ruled in a decision earlier this month that the deepfakes failed to meet the Criminal Code definition of intimate images.

The man pleaded guilty to charges of criminal harassment and sending an obscene picture.

The civil lawsuit claims the man’s actions are an invasion of privacy and constitute cyberbullying.

“The Defendant maliciously intended to cause the Plaintiff harm or was reckless with regard to the risk of harm to the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.

“The Defendant acted without lawful justification and the Plaintiff has suffered damages as a result.”

The lawsuit is seeking damages for emotional and psychological pain and suffering, educational costs, medical care costs, loss of dignity and reputation, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of income and earning capacity and impairment of relationships.

No statement of defence has been filed.

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