At Bolton crown court on Monday, Hugh Nelson was sentenced to 18 years in prison for using AI to generate sexually abusive images of children – based on real photos of real children.

The Guardian’s North of England correspondent Hannah Al-Othman, who was present at his hearings, describes how Nelson was caught and prosecuted, in what Greater Manchester police have described as a landmark case in this country.

Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University, tells Helen Pidd about the growing use of AI-generated images for child sexual abuse, and how the technology poses particular challenges for the authorities.