Image of Perth event for murdered British teen is AI-generated
- Published on June 23, 2026 at 07:17
- 2 min read
- By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia
Footage of British police handcuffing a student who lay mortally wounded after being stabbed by a Sikh man triggered protests in early June, but an image circulating online of a gathering in Australia to "honour" the teenager is AI-generated. The image appearing to show a crowd paying tribute to Henry Nowak at Perth's Scarborough Beach contains visual errors that are telltale signs of synthetic content, and local authorities told AFP that no such event happened.
"Hundreds gather in Scarborough, Perth, Australia to honour murdered British teen Henry Nowak," says part of a June 7 post in a Facebook group focused on Australian politics.
The post includes images appearing to show crowds of people waving the British flag in an outdoor area, some of whom are down on one knee.
"They take the knee in tribute and proudly wave British flags high," the post continues. "Australian patriots stand strong with Henry Nowak."
The post surfaced after a UK court on June 1 jailed a British Sikh man, Vickrum Digwa, for life for killing 18-year-old Nowak in Southampton in December (archived link).
Police officers had placed Nowak in handcuffs at the scene after Digwa claimed he had been racially abused, with body camera footage played during the trial showing Nowak had repeatedly told police: "I can't breathe." Nowak died from stab wounds soon after.
Far-right figures have seized on the case, including firebrand Tommy Robinson, who spoke at a Southampton rally claiming police treat white British people as "second-rate citizens" (archived link). Protesters also amassed around the scene of the crime on June 2 and clashed with police, throwing bricks, bottles and bins.
The image purportedly showing the gathering in Perth was also shared in similar Instagram, YouTube and X posts.
"This is the Australia I know and love!! Australia stands with Britain," says a comment on one of the posts.
Another says: "Regardless of what others try to tell us, on the whole we are still tied mainly to England, Australia being a western country and abiding by western rules and law."
But the circulating image is AI-generated, and local authorities told AFP that no such event occurred around Scarborough Beach, located in the Stirling suburb of Perth (archived link).
"We've seen the image in question and we are not aware of an event of this nature taking place at Scarborough Beach," a spokesperson for the city of Stirling told AFP by email on June 22.
A closer look at the image also reveals clear visual errors, like how one man taking the knee has one leg in a long jean pant and another leg in jean shorts. His shadow against the ground is also unnaturally boxy.
Another man in a blue shirt has slightly mangled hands -- a common indication that an image was AI-generated -- while a red-hatted bystander on the right of the image appears to have two right arms, one held across his chest and another in his pocket.
The image also contains a digital SynthID watermark, indicating that it was created using OpenAI tools (archived link).
Australian Associated Press also debunked the image as being created using AI tools (archived link).
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