Attorney General’s Office files sexual abuse of children charges against Carter County man

HELENA – Prosecutors in the Montana Attorney General’s Office Thursday charged a Carter County man with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children (CSAM) for possession of explicit images and videos that depict a child under the age of 12. In at least one of the counts, artificial intelligence was used to digitally alter the image of a Montana child.

Shy Herbert McCutchan, 31, was arrested Thursday in Alzada by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office and the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI). The investigation was launched after the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children (NCMEC) received multiple cyber tips that CSAM was uploaded to a wireless cloud backup from McCutchan’s devices.

During the investigation, authorities found that McCutchan captured images of a child from the parent’s public social media account and used AI to create manipulated content with the photos, producing AI CSAM. Using AI to digitally alter images of children located on social media is becoming more common among child sex predators. To address the issue and hold perpetrators accountable, House Bill 82, supported by Attorney General Austin Knudsen, was passed and signed into law during the 2025 Legislative Session and allows for the prosecution of sex predators utilizing artificial intelligence to digitally alter images.

McCutchan is being held on a $250,000 bond as ordered by the state District Court Judge Rennie Wittman.  An arraignment has been set for September 9. He could face up to 100 years in prison for each of the three charges. The DCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and the Carter County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant Attorneys General Daniel Guzynski and Stephanie Robles are prosecuting the case.