Images of the stabbing victims in Southport, U.K., are genuine and not 'computer-generated'

What is the claim?

Multiple posts on social media have speculated that images of the three girls killed in the Southport knife attack released by the police were "computer-generated." 

One such post shared on Facebook (archived here), which included the images of the girls, claimed, "The three images of the girls who have been murdered have been put through a test and its come back they are computer generated 1 maybe human, Will post screen shots in comments if anyone can double confirm this would be appreciated." The comment section included screenshots from an unknown website which analyzed that the images were "likely AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated." Several other users have reshared the post above, claiming that the incident was "staged." Archived versions of such posts can are here, here, and here.

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Screenshots of posts circulating online. (Source: Facebook/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the claim is false. 

What did we find?

We found that all three images are genuine and not computer-generated. 

A statement released by Merseyside Police included images of the three victims, identified as "Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine." The statement noted that the photographs were issued to the police by their families. "Their families, who are being supported by specialist officers, have issued photographs and have asked that their privacy is respected at this time," the statement read. 

Several news organizations, including BBC News, Sky News, and The Guardian, reported that the victims' families released the images. A report by The Independent also included a picture of one of the victims, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, crediting it to Facebook.

We also ran the images through Itisaar, a deep fake and AI image detection tool developed by IIT Jodhpur (India) under Professor Mayank Vatsa. The tool classified all three pictures as "Real" with no indication of them being AI-generated. 

Logically Facts found no evidence in the image to support the claim that it was AI-generated. Typically, AI-generated images display inconsistencies in areas like hands, ears, and lighting on a person's face, but none of these issues were observed in the photos now in question. 

What happened in Southport?

Three young girls were killed in a knife attack on July 29, 2024, in Southport, England, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class for children aged six to ten. 

Following this, riots took place in multiple locations and have been linked to misinformation and disinformation that spread on social media regarding the identity of the attacker. To address this, a judge made the rare decision and publicly named the then 17-year-old suspect as Axel Rudakubana, who appeared in a Liverpool court facing three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. 

The verdict

The above evidence establishes that all three images of the victims are genuine and not computer generated, as the posts incorrectly claimed.