CHATTANOOGA, TN – File this one under creepy “cut-and-paste” child porn of the virtual sort.

Michael Campbell, 45, of Soddy-Daisy, has been charged with 31 counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after authorities searched his home and found pictures on his computer that showed the faces of the three girls he had cut out of normal pictures and placed on the nude bodies of more mature females; the so-called “Photoshop Effect.”

Two of the faces were of local girls — a 10-year-old and 12-year-old. The third face apparently is that of 16-year-old sensation, Miley Cyrus, pictured, the popular star of “Hannah Montana” and the motion picture version, “Hanna Montana: The Movie.”

Detectives searched Campbell’s home in April after a friend of Campbell’s contacted them and showed them photos he had found in the suspect’s house of his daughter, and told them he had seen other photos of young girls on Campbell’s camera.

According to the Chattanoogan, the search and subsequent investigation uncovered 31 altered images. Investigators have not accused Campbell of having any contact with the three girls, but according to Assistant District Attorney Dave Denny, it may not matter.

“When you have the face of a small child affixed to a nude body of a mature woman, it’s going to be the state’s position that this is for sexual gratification and that this is simulated sexual activity,” he said during Wednesday’s hearing.

At the hearing, Campbell’s attorney attacked the plausibility of the charges. “There’s no photographs or depictions of any of these three minors in a nude fashion or any other type fashion?” he asked.

“Not with their actual body, no,” replied Detective Michael Cox, who said that Campbell told them he didn’t know altering the images was illegal and that “he wanted to see what they would look like as adults.”

Tennessee laws state that in prosecuting the offense of sexual exploitation of a minor, “the state is not required to prove the actual identity or age of the minor.”

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told CNN Wednesday that ever since the 2002 Supreme Court ruling in Ashcroft v. The Free Speech Coalition, which held that speech prohibited by the CPPA‘s ban on “virtual child” pornography is distinguishable from actual child pornography and thus protected, “more and more of these guys are using morphed images, image manipulations” in an attempt to circumvent prosecution.”

Such attempts are not always successful, Allen told CNN, as charges can still be filed under obscenity laws or other statutes; other avenues can be pursued, as well, when the faces used are those of real, identifiable people.

Regarding the success of such prosecutions, “there have not been a huge number of them,” Allen said. While some have been successful and won convictions, many such cases are still in the appellate process.

A judge has bound Campbell’s case over to the grand jury, and he remains free on more than $100,000 bond.