A FORMER Scottish Labour councillor has admitted to downloading dozens of images of children being raped onto his phone.
Ewan Dillon, 21, was caught with images showing girls between the ages of five and 10 being raped in 2022.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that how the former Labour councillor for Bridge of Allan and Dunblane’s home was raided by police in May 2022, the same month Dillon was elected to Stirling Council.
He then switched to sitting as an independent in the days following the raid before eventually resigning in March this year.
He told police officers at the time: : "All I want to say on the record is that it's an accident.
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"It's a link, something has been downloaded or sent to me, and I've deleted it."
An examination of a phone found in Dillon’s bedroom revealed 58 child abuse images downloaded onto the device.
Police classified 15 of them as being in the most serious category.
After pleading guilty to downloading the images between October 2021 and September 2022, Dillon was ordered to complete 270 hours of unpaid work and will be placed on supervision for two years.
He has also been placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
He was told by Sheriff Keith O’Mahony that the sentence was a direct alternative to serving time in jail.
"If you breach this order you'll be brought back before me and prison, I would imagine, would be inevitable," he said.
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