Creator of AI-Fueled Willy Wonka Disaster Forced to Register as a Sex Offender

In a final, sad development in a story that has been full of such developments, the creator of the notorious Willy Wonka Experience—the likes of which took the internet by storm earlier this year—has been placed on a sex offender registry. Billy Coull, 36, who launched the ill-fated children’s event, was recently found guilty of having sent unwanted nudes to a woman, BBC reports.

In the United Kingdom, sharing or “threatening to share intimate images”—otherwise known as “cyberflashing”—is a serious offense. The government states that individuals who share unsolicited nudes “face prosecution and could find themselves on the sex offenders register, fined and or imprisoned for up to two years,” a government website states. Some states in the U.S. have also outlawed unsolicited nudes.

Coull was recently found guilty of having sent unsolicited nude imagery to a woman, the BBC reports. Beginning in March, Coull is said to have barraged the woman with messages on a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. In the messages, he used sexual rhetoric, referring to her as “sugar lips” and “sexy.” Eventually, he began sending the woman pictures of himself in his underwear, before also sending her “more intimate images,” BBC writes. He was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work and will be under supervision for a year.

“She told you to desist from using sexual language but despite this, you sent intimate images and messages of an alarming character,” a government official is quoted as telling Coull. BBC writes that Coull admitted that he sent the pictures and that all the drama with the Willy Wonka Experience “had taken a toll on his mental health.”

Coull is the director of the House of Illuminati, the organization that staged the Willy Wonka Experience earlier this year. House of Illuminati used AI-generated imagery to advertise the experience online, which was based in Glasgow, Scotland. Those images showed a fantastical landscape of giant mushrooms, lollipop forests, flying horses, and jellybean waterfalls, and promised customers that, for £35 for tickets (about $45), they would enter “a place where chocolate dreams become reality.” Unfortunately, when families showed up to the actual event, they found a creepy warehouse sparsely populated by decorations, where struggling actors, dressed as Oompa Loompas, did their best to provide entertainment. Some children reportedly burst into tears from the creepiness of it all and, eventually, the cops were called.

The event was so bad, and inspired so much consternation, that it became a viral sensation. Images of the AI-generated imagery, paired with images from the desolate warehouse, circulated the internet, inspiring incredulity and much mockery. Outraged parents demanded refunds and later spoke to the press about the event. Even actors connected to the project spoke out about it, with one claiming that he had been handed a 15-page monologue of “AI-generated gibberish” that frightened children.

At the time, Coull released a statement, publicly apologizing for the failed event. “It all looked good on paper,” he said. “I understand the disappointment and frustration this has caused, and for that, I am truly sorry.” Coull later told reporters that the event had “ruined” his life.