A former Stirlingshire councillor has been handed a community payback order after being caught with sexual abuse images of children on his phone.
Ewan Dillon, who formerly represented Labour for Bridge of Allan and Dunblane was ordered to complete 270 hours of unpaid work and placed on supervision for two years.
The images ranged between category A – the most serious – category B and category C. The files were created between October 2021 and February 2022.
Dillon appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court on May 20 2024 where he admitted taking or permitting to be taken, indecent images or pseudo-photographs of children.
Reports show the 21-year-old admitted to downloading images on his phone of girls aged between five and ten being raped.
He was given his community payback order on Wednesday 31 July, and had his name added to the sex offenders register for five years.
Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central & 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."
The court heard how police carried out a search at Dillon’s home in Stirling on September 29, 2022, after receiving intelligence.
He told officers he had observed indecent images of children on the mobile phone but had never 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.”
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