{"id":817024,"date":"2026-07-21T19:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T19:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T19:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T19:59:20","slug":"sickkids-doctor-charged-with-possessing-accessing-child-sex-abuse-material-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/817024\/","title":{"rendered":"SickKids doctor charged with possessing, accessing child sex abuse material, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>A doctor at Toronto&#8217;s Hospital for Sick Children has been charged with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse and exploitation material, police say.<\/p>\n<p>Dilan Dissanayake, 44, of Toronto, was arrested and charged Tuesday, Toronto police said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Police said in the release that its internet child exploitation unit launched an investigation after a person allegedly used an electronic device to access and download child sexual abuse and exploitation material.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2026, police carried out search warrants at the hospital and at a private home, seizing several electronic devices, including a work computer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this time, investigators have found no evidence that the child sexual abuse and exploitation material is connected to his practice as a physician,&#8221; police said in the release.<\/p>\n<p>Dissanayake was due to appear in a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday. The charges against him have not yet been tested in court.<\/p>\n<p>Hospital &#8216;deeply upset and dismayed&#8217; by news<\/p>\n<p>In a statement posted to its website, the hospital said it is &#8220;deeply upset and dismayed&#8221; by the news and it condemns the behaviour alleged by police. It said the safety and well-being of its patients, families and staff is its highest priority.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;SickKids has not been notified of any risk to patients and families,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Toronto Police\u00a0Service\u00a0has\u00a0indicated there is\u00a0no evidence that the charges are connected to Dr. Dissanayake&#8217;s\u00a0medical\u00a0practice,&#8221; the hospital said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>Dissanayake was placed on immediate leave once the hospital became aware of the investigation, it said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The hospital said families of patients who received care from Dissanayake can contact its patient relations team with any concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information is urged to contact police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-817024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}