A convicted paedophile who secretly photographed thousands of women and girls before using artificial intelligence to digitally remove their clothes was granted bail three times at a home overlooking a playground, forcing families linked to the case to leave the area.
Zafer Dogan, 32, collected up to 5,000 images. The sheer number of alleged victims has meant police have been unable to identify everyone featured in the material.
The case prompted a strong response from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who said the justice system should put children before paedophiles. He warned that dangerous and prolific offenders are routinely granted bail by judges despite the risks they present.
Dogan used AI software to alter photographs of children, including youngsters wearing school uniforms, making them appear nude. From his bedroom, which faced a playground, he was also able to take pictures of children below.
He monitored hundreds of women and children, some as young as seven, at times spending hours concealed in his car while secretly photographing them.
The mechanic was arrested on July 16 over offences involving indecent images of children. Police bodycam footage showed him fleeing after allegedly freeing himself from his handcuffs. He discarded his phone in a garden, where officers later recovered it.
Dogan was sentenced to two years and four months at Wood Green Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to several image-related offences, including making indecent images of children.
He also targeted children known to him, secretly taking photographs and later using AI to “nudify” them. Investigators found that he had downloaded 1,800 indecent images, including extreme pornography and material involving bestiality.
Three courts declined to remand Dogan in custody even after he admitted nine offences involving indecent images, extreme pornography and obstructing police.
His continued release led families of victims to abandon their homes, remove their children from school, leave employment and move elsewhere for safety. Dogan also continued attempting to make contact.
In an unusually forceful intervention outside the sentencing hearing, Sir Mark said public trust in the justice system was being damaged. He described it as “little surprise” that many victims were withdrawing from prosecutions after seeing alleged attackers released back into the community.
His comments came just one week before the first phase of Labour’s early-release programme, under which 700 offenders are expected to leave prison.
Zafer Dogan, 32, collected as many as 5,000 images involving so many victims that police have been unable to identify them all. He is pictured outside court
Dogan secretly followed hundreds of women and children, including youngsters as young as seven, and spent hours watching them from his car
Prosecutor Sarah Gabay told the court that investigators had uncovered “thousands of images of women and children which seem to have been taken without their consent or their knowledge”.
She said the people shown appeared to be carrying out ordinary daily activities. Some photographs depicted children playing on climbing frames.
Police said Dogan had amassed more than 5,000 photographs, with many apparently taken from the window of his bedroom.
The court heard that images of 33 adult women and two children, aged seven and 13, had been digitally manipulated with AI software to produce sexualised material.
Dogan was arrested for a second time on August 4. The following day, police charged him and he was remanded in custody.
He appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on August 6, where he admitted all the charges.
According to the prosecutor, Dogan has ‘been on conditional bail throughout these proceedings’.
Dogan gave no comment interviews after both arrests, the court heard.
The court heard victim impact statements from the mothers of Dogan’s two child victims, who have been kept anonymous for legal reasons.
The mother of the 13-year-old victim described feeling as if she had been ‘punched in the gut’ when police officers told her what had happened.
She added: ‘I’m really worried that my daughter’s photos are online and other paedophiles have them.’
The mother of the seven-year-old victim described feeling ‘helpless’, adding: ‘Our lives will never be the same again and I can’t do anything about it all because one man exploited my child.’
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Another parent said: ‘Our lives are turned upside down for ever. Yet no one protects us.’
Joseph Carr, mitigating, said the defendant ‘recognises the profound seriousness’ of his offending.
He said the defendant had separated from his long-term partner in 2025 and subsequently ‘spiralled into depression’.
The lawyer said Dogan ‘fell down the rabbit hole and was unable to find his way out’, but added that there is no excuse for his actions.
The judge described Dogan as a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character during the hearing having read multiple character references, which Mr Carr said ‘speak to positive character.’
Dogan, of Enfield, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of a child which included 900 category C images, 294 category B images and 653 category A images – which are the most severe.
Dramatic footage shows him running away from officers are ‘freeing himself’ from his handcuffs. He threw his phone into a garden, where it was found by police
Mark Rowley said ‘children should be put first, not the paedophile’ as he warned that ‘dangerous and prolific offenders’ are ‘routinely’ released on bail despite the risk they pose
He also admitted possessing extreme pornography, possessing a prohibited image of a child, creating purported intimate images of an adult, obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty and a further two counts of making indecent photographs of a child.
The Met Police said that alongside the CPS, it had opposed Dogan’s bail on three occasions but their attempts were unsuccessful and the offender was allowed to return to his flat.
Detective Chief Inspector Brian Kelleher told the Press Association about the force’s ‘frustration’ at the court’s decision to repeatedly bail Dogan, who had used the AI software to ‘nudify’ images.
The detective said the ‘whole details’ of the case were raised in court, ‘including the fact that he was being bailed to effectively the area where he had been offending’.
Mr Kelleher said: ‘The matters at court … went through a series of challenges where the police and CPS opposed bail, opposed his being bailed back to the address, but the courts continued to bail him, and that went through a series of three or four different hearings.’
He went on: ‘There are certainly frustrations, especially where, like in this case, we identify an offender who’s moved beyond the normal pattern of slightly more passive collecting of material into producing it yourself, and when we then highlight the risk to the court to really try and challenge those systems to put someone into custody.’
Police Constable Natalie Scagliarini, who led the investigation, said: ‘This is a deeply distressing case. Dogan’s actions were predatory and dangerous. He targeted the most innocent of scenes – children playing or out walking with their parents – and manipulated the photos he took in the most sickening way.
‘The nature of his offending has understandably left those who have learned of it feeling unsettled and violated, not knowing when they might be being watched or photographed and for what purpose.’
Speaking outside Wood Green Crown Court, Sir Mark said: ‘The children should be put first, not the paedophile.
‘Pressure to reduce the remand population has contributed to more dangerous and prolific offenders being granted bail routinely despite strong submissions from the police and CPS.
‘Victims are left fearful, communities are left feeling less safe and confidence in the justice system is undermined. This case is just another example of victims being let down.’
He said officers were ‘routinely’ seeing the consequences of ‘pressure’ on courts not to remand criminals due to prison overcrowding.
London’s Victims’ Commissioner Andrea Simon told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that the rights of victims have ‘seem to be put to one side as the justice system struggles’.
She said on Friday: ‘I think victims and their families were grossly failed by the decision to allow this paedophile to return to an address where he was overlooking a playground and near to his victims.
‘But the case, I think, is an example of the many ways the justice system just does not centre victims.
‘To know that the police and prosecutors opposed bail multiple times, but nevertheless he was returned to the community, is an indication that the capacity pressures on prisons are not being balanced with the impacts that that’s having on victims’ lives.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘The law is clear that bail should only be used where necessary and proportionate, including to protect victims, witnesses and the public while investigations and court proceedings are ongoing.’