Former councillor avoids prison over child rape images after ‘accident’ claim
A former councillor caught with child sex abuse images showing girls aged between five and ten being raped has been given a community sentence.
A mobile phone belonging to Ewan Dillon, who represented Labour for Bridge of Allan and Dunblane on Stirling Council at the time, was found to contain 58 indecent photographs of girls aged between five and 15.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard Police Scotland received information in May 2022 – the same month dillon was elected to the local authority – that there was a device at his home containing indecent images of children.
The categories of the images ranged between A – the most serious–to Band C. In May, Dillon pleaded guilty to downloading child abuse images between October 2021 and September 2022.
After being arrested and cautioned, Dillon, a former member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, told officers: “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.”
On Wednesday, Dillon, who later became an independent councillor but who resigned in March this year, was given a community payback order to complete 270 hours of unpaid work, and placed on supervision for two years. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
Sheriff Keith O’mahony said the sentence was a direct alternative to custody. he told dillon: “If you breach this order, you'll be brought back before me and prison, I would imagine, would be inevitable.”
In a statement issued by the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service, 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.” Prior to quitting the Labour group on Stirling Council, Dillon, a former student at Forth Valley College, had been vice-convener of the community planning and regeneration committee, and the children and young people committee.
According to the most recent criminal proceedings statistics published by the Scottish Government, which cover 2021/22, some 74 per cent of convictions for indecent photos of children resulted in community sentences.
Research for the Scottish Sentencing Council found the proportion of convictions for such offences which resulted in noncustodial sentences, has risen sharply in recent years. In 2010/11, 45.8 per cent of convictions resulted in custodial sentences, but the figure dropped to 25.6 per cent in 2019/20.