Ex-councillor Ewan Dillon sentenced over child sex abuse images

A former Stirling Council member caught with child sexual abuse images has been sentenced.

Ewan Dillon was a Labour councillor when images of girls aged between five and 15 were found on his phone.

The 21-year-old quit the council in March and was today sentenced at Stirling Sheriff Court.

Dillon, a former Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, was reported to police in May 2022, the same month he was elected.

Police searched his home and discovered 58 indecent images of under-age girls, including some material in the most serious category of images.

He told officers he had seen the images but had not saved any of them.

After being arrested and cautioned, he said: "All I want to say on the record is that it’s an accident.  

"It's a link, something has been downloaded, or sent to me, and I've deleted it. The fact of the matter is that it has been on my phone at one point but I deleted it."

The files were created between October 2021 and February 2022 and Dillon admitted taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent images or pseudo-photographs of children when he appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court in May this year.

Today he was sentenced to 270 hours of unpaid work, placed under a two-year supervision order and added to the sex offenders register for five years.

Helen Nisbet, procurator fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: "Ewan Dillon pleaded guilty to and has now been sentenced for possessing horrendous images of child abuse.  

"These are not victimless crimes. They perpetuate the humiliation and devastation suffered by child victims of sexual abuse and are an affront to society. 

"We will always treat these crimes seriously."