![\"Stock](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/08927ae4-70c8-4f56-9054-c8aee90a6fc8.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe offender is identifiable in open court because there is no traditional victim, the court heard\n<\/p>\n
The charges date from February 4, 2024.<\/p>\n
The images included four photographic images created using AI and three anime videos depicting sexual acts with teenagers, contrary to Section 6(1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.<\/p>\n
Stephen Buckley (47) of Hunters Wood, Ballyseedy, Tralee, had no previous convictions.<\/p>\n
The material was described in court as a Category 3 offence, with Category 1 being the most severe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was viewed with that seriousness by the DPP that he would face judge and jury if he didn\u2019t plead guilty?\u201d said Judge David Waters.<\/p>\n
The judge asked if Mr Buckley would be listed as a registered sex offender.<\/p>\n
Court presenter Chris Manton stated it would depend on the nature of the sentencing.<\/p>\n
The defendant must receive a custodial sentence to be listed, the court heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not prepared to leave you without a conviction but I\u2019m not considering a custodial sentence,\u201d the judge told Mr Buckley.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the married father attends counselling in Duagh.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stock image<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 – Friday January 16 <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been nothing either before or since this,\u201d said his solicitor, Pat Mann.<\/p>\n
It was noted the offender is identifiable in open court because there is no traditional victim due to the nature of the offence.<\/p>\n
Mr Buckley was remanded on continued bail to February 25 for a full probation report to assess any potential risks he poses.<\/p>\n
The Kerry man\u2019s guilty plea comes in the same week that social media platform X\u2019s controversial AI tool Grok hit global controversy. <\/p>\n
The tool, which was not directly linked to the above court hearing, was the subject of debate after it emerged it was being used to \u2018nudify\u2019 real people, mostly women and children. <\/p>\n
In a statement on X yesterday, the company said it had imposed restrictions on \u201cediting of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis adds an extra layer of protection by helping to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il TD Ryan O\u2019Meara told the D\u00e1il this week of the abuse of women\u2019s images on Grok, with reports of one woman being reduced to wearing \u201ca bit of string\u201d, while another reported having a ball-gag in her mouth.<\/p>\n
In the same session, Paul Murphy of People \u00adBefore \u00adProfit referred to the current situation, exemplified by Grok, as a \u00adsocial media \u201chellscape\u201d.<\/p>\n
He accused the Government of having \u201cdrunk the big-tech Kool-Aid big time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Richard Boyd Barrett of People \u00adBefore Profit said content moderators were \u00adgoing on strike because their job was in future going to be carried out by AI itself.<\/p>\n
Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats described Elon Musk as \u201ca dirty little slimeball\u201d for what had taken place with Grok. <\/p>\n
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offender is identifiable in open court because there is no traditional victim, the court heard The charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,55486,289,290,18,19,17,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-287629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-anna-zacharies","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115905166212256243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}