P.E.I. man guilty to sexually touching a teen and possessing child abuse images. Sentencing expected in 2026 after court assessment.
Court Confession in Charlottetown
A Charlottetown man has admitted to sexually touching a teenage boy he was in an illegal relationship with, and to possessing hundreds of child sexual abuse images.
Dylan Kurt Macdonald, 30, entered guilty pleas in P.E.I. Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon. The plea marks the first public disclosure of details surrounding the case, which has been under investigation for more than a year. To protect the victim’s identity, the court has withheld specific dates and locations of the offences.
Online Upload Sparks Investigation
Macdonald’s criminal activity came to police attention after he attempted to upload child sexual abuse material through Adobe’s online photo software. The suspicious files were automatically flagged to the P.E.I. RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit, triggering a deeper probe.
Following a search warrant executed in February, police seized his electronic devices—phones, laptops, tablets, and external drives—containing “hundreds of images of adolescent males with exposed genitals.” Officers also discovered a locked box with printed photos, including a yearbook image of a local teen, who was later identified as the victim.
Relationship Began at Local Camp
Investigators determined that Macdonald first met the victim years earlier at Oak Acres Camp, where Macdonald was a counsellor and the youth a camper.
The two reconnected later and developed a friendship that eventually turned romantic. According to the agreed statement of facts, the victim—then 15 years old—initiated the relationship believing it was consensual. Macdonald claimed he believed the teen was 16, the legal age of consent in Canada. However, his failure to confirm the youth’s actual age rendered the sexual contact illegal.
Evidence of Sexual Acts
Court documents describe that the pair visited a motel during the period when the victim was still underage. Macdonald took photographs of the teen engaging in sexual acts.
He admitted in court that he did not take reasonable steps to verify the victim’s age before initiating sexual contact. While the relationship continued briefly after the teen turned 16, it has since ended.
Breach of Court Conditions
After his initial arrest, Macdonald was released on several conditions, including no contact with minors, no internet access, and no communication with the victim.
In June 2025, he violated those orders by sending an audio message to the victim and later contacting him by phone while attending an addictions program. Police later found Macdonald in a vehicle with another youth under 16, along with a cellphone, glass pipe, unidentified drug, and a collapsible baton, all of which breached his release terms.
Awaiting Sentencing and Psychological Review
Macdonald has served a 110-day sentence for the breaches and has remained in custody since June. On Tuesday, the court granted him temporary release to visit a dying family member, with strict conditions requiring him to return to custody next week.
The case will return to court in early 2026 to schedule sentencing. Both the Crown and defence have requested that Macdonald undergo a sexual deviancy assessment before the final decision is made.
Public Safety and Legal Implications
The case highlights the growing role of digital monitoring in uncovering child exploitation and reinforces the responsibility of law enforcement to protect minors online.
It also raises broader questions about how Canadian courts manage offenders who breach release terms and how early detection of flagged internet activity can prevent further harm.
