Image of Perth event for murdered British teen is AI-generated - Yahoo
An AI-generated image circulating on social media falsely depicted a tribute gathering for Henry Nowak at Perth's Scarborough Beach in June 2026
- Incident date
- Jun 2026
- Target
- Henry Nowak
In June 2026, social media posts circulated an image purportedly showing a large crowd gathering at Scarborough Beach in Perth, Australia, to honor the late British teenager Henry Nowak. Local authorities confirmed that no such event took place, and experts identified the image as a synthetic creation.
What happened
The image appeared in a Facebook group focused on Australian politics on June 7, 2026, accompanied by claims that hundreds of people had gathered to pay tribute to Nowak, who was killed in the UK in December. Similar versions of the post were subsequently shared across Instagram, YouTube, and X. The incident followed a high-profile UK court case involving the death of the 18-year-old, which had previously triggered protests and political discourse.
Upon investigation, the city of Stirling confirmed to AFP that they were unaware of any such event occurring at Scarborough Beach. Technical analysis revealed multiple hallmark signs of AI generation within the image. Specifically, one individual in the crowd displayed anatomical inconsistencies, such as one leg appearing as a long jean pant while the other resembled jean shorts, and another figure appeared to have two right arms. Additionally, the image contained a digital SynthID watermark, which indicated it was created using OpenAI tools. These visual errors and the absence of any real-world event confirmed the image was a fabrication designed to mislead the public.