Moray Labour councillor Sean Morton, 35, faces four criminal charges including photographing and distributing rape images of children some with animals.
Labour councillor and general election candidate Sean Morton appeared in court last Christmas Eve accused of a string of child sex offences.
Details of the case emerged as the Labour party launched their manifesto ahead of May’s council elections, when Morton, 35, was expected to stand again.
Insiders told how Morton, the party’s Moray spokesman on youth services and education, is a rising star in party ranks.
He is good friends with a host of senior Labour politicians and is part of the centrist movement behind the Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland Kezia Dugdale.
Both he and Kezia Dugdale were part of the Labour delegation that jetted to the US to support Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid last year.
Morton, whose mum Louise, 54, is a Labour activist, has posted snaps of himself and figures including Ms Dugdale, Mrs Clinton and her daughter Chelsea.
Morton, of Lhanbryde, finished third as candidate in both the 2015 Westminster election and last year’s Holyrood poll.
He made no plea or declaration as he faced four charges in a private appearance at Elgin Sherif Court.
One charge relates to taking indecent photographs of a child.
A second concerns possession of such photos, while a third relates to “distributing or showing” rape pictures of children to other party members.
The final charge relates to Morton being in possession of the most extreme child pornography.
No details have been made public but the offence surrounds images of “extreme acts” such as taking or threatening a life, sever injury, rape and sexual activity with animals.
The councillor — who declares himself a volunteer at bodies including Victim Support — was elected in 2012 to the Fochabers, Lhanbryde and Spey Coast ward, after working as a parliamentary researcher.
The Crown Office confirmed Morton appeared on petition and was committed for further examination and bailed.
No date for his next appearance has been set.
labour25 
What a disgusting man i feel sick just reading what he has done .and he has the afront to tell us what to do .and was in charge of youth services and education .!!! He knew what he was doing like all his kind castration for a start .Let’s see what Corbyn and the loveis say
The crime of just watching child pornography is criminal and a jail term is inevitable for this deviant the fact he’s associated himself with a supporter of child trafficking (Bill & Hilary Clinton) speaks volumes the mans a menace and should be locked up and thereafter sacked from that cabal of deviants from Tony Blair to George Robertson and others, in the Labour Party.
Obviously he has not been vetted properly for working with organisations that include kids as he is a Representative for a political party, and he automatically gets the job. I hope he is hung drawn and quartered and jailed for a very long time there is no room in society for people who prey on kids ever!!
Tip of the iceberg i think I have questions though-When he showed the disgusting material to other party members did he expect them to to be receptive to them?(I find it hard to believe he just randomly passed them around without incriminating himself,unless he was not just deranged but monumentally stupid.
Were the persons who were shown the material also investigated,given that it is a reasonable assumption that they were interested in it and why have they not been charged?
Disgraceful behaviour.. did Clinton know about this freak?