SickKids Pediatric Rheumatologist Charged With Child Sexual Abuse Material Offenses
Dr. Dilan Dissanayake, a 45-year-old pediatric rheumatologist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, was charged in July 2025 with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material. Police began investigating in January after receiving a tip about files uploaded to his personal Dropbox account from an IP address geolocated to the hospital.
Dr. Dilan Dissanayake, a 45-year-old staff rheumatologist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, was charged in July 2025 with possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material (CSAEM). The charges followed a months-long investigation that began when Toronto police received a tip on Jan. 20, 2025, from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
According to investigators, suspected CSAEM was uploaded to Dissanayake’s personal Dropbox account on Jan. 19, 2025, from an IP address geolocated to the hospital. The alleged file name included the acronym “pthc,” standing for pre-teen hardcore, and depicted a female child aged 12 to 15 being sexually assaulted.
SickKids confirmed that Dissanayake was placed on leave on Jan. 28, 2025, the same day officers searched his office in the hospital's research centre. During searches conducted in January 2025, police seized seven electronic devices from his home and two computers from his office. In late February 2025, a detective attested that an initial examination of the desktop computer seized from his office revealed seven “thumbcache” images constituting CSAEM.
Despite being placed on leave in January, Dissanayake’s medical license was not suspended by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) until July 2025, when he was formally charged. Experts have criticized this six-month gap as a risk to public trust, highlighting regulatory gaps where licenses remain active during ongoing investigations.
Following his arrest, Dissanayake was released on $20,000 bail with restrictions on internet use and interactions with minors. His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2025.
In August 2025, a second SickKids employee was arrested on child sex crime charges unrelated to those against Dissanayake. Following the second arrest, SickKids hired KPMG to conduct an external review and is exploring future programming provided by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. These steps are part of the implementation of stricter safeguards at the institution amid concerns over community safety and erosion of public trust in the medical system.
The case has drawn increased attention to the rising incidence of CSAEM access and possession in Canada. Canada’s share of international online CSAEM tips reported to NCMEC rose from approximately 37,000 in 2019 to 129,000 in 2025. Total reports to NCMEC globally grew from 17 million in 2019 to 23 million in 2025.