The former Ballymoney DUP Councillor and Ex-Mayor, Ian Stevenson, has been disqualified from standing as a Councillor until at least April 2025.
Mr Stevenson was found guilty of sexual assault on a colleague in 2018, receiving 220 hours of community service and required to sign the sex offenders register for five years. Stevenson was also struck off the nursing register.
Following his conviction, a complaint was made to the local government standards commissioner that he breached paragraph 4.2 of the local government code of conduct.
This standard states that Councillors ‘must not bring their position or their council into disrepute.’
Following a hearing on Monday, acting local government commissioner for standards Ms Katrin Shaw found that Mr Stevenson had breached the local government code of conduct, and disqualified him from standing for office until April 30, 2025, saying he had, “brought the role of councillor and the council into disrepute and is likely to have diminished public confidence in both”.
