Sean Morton

Morton was elected as a Labour councillor for the Fochabers Lhanbryde ward in the 2012 Moray Council election.^[4][5] In December 2016, he called the newly installed Dandy Lion statue in Elgin "cultural and intellectual vomit in technicolor".^[6] He served one term, before unsuccessfully restanding as an independent in 2017.^[7][8]

In the 2015 UK general election, he stood as the Labour candidate for Moray but was unsuccessful, finishing third of six candidates with 9.9% of the vote.^[9]

In December 2016, Morton was charged with offences related to indecent images of children, leading to his suspension from the Labour Party in January 2017.^[4] He resigned from the party and ran as an independent candidate in the May 2017 local elections but was not re-elected. During his independent campaign, he received support from Labour figures including Matthew Doyle (later Lord Doyle) and Pam Duncan-Glancy.^[10]

Source:^[13][14]

Morton was reported to police by a new acquaintance on 7 June 2016 and arrested at home three days later.^[15] Morton first appeared in court on 24 December 2016 at Elgin Sheriff Court, charged under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 in connection with indecent images of children.^[4] Images of four girls aged 10-15 dated November 2013 were found on his MacBook, and images of people having sex with a dog were found in his iTunes account.^[15] In November 2017, he admitted to possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornography.^[16] His lawyer argued in mitigation that Morton had been sexually abused as a child.^[15] On 20 February 2018, he was sentenced to a community payback order requiring 140 hours of unpaid work, a three-year supervision order, and placement on the sex offenders register.^[1]

In 2024, Morton breached his sexual offences prevention order. He was also found to possess further indecent photographs of children. In January 2025, at Glasgow Sheriff Court, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison, with the sentence backdated to May 2024.^[2][3]

The disclosures about Morton's convictions, along with his ongoing ties to Doyle and Duncan-Glancy, led to both of them being suspended by the party in February 2026.^[10][17][18]

• Morton, Sean (18 June 2015). "Labour's northern voices must also be heard". Labour Hame.