A senior Northern Ireland civil servant who admitted arranging to meet a girl for under-age sex in his Chicago hotel room will be sentenced by a US court later today.
Stan Mallon (62) the ex-acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency, faces up to four years and three months in jail.
The father of five from Crumlin, Co Antrim, pleaded guilty last October to a charge of using the Internet to persuade a 14-year-old girl to have sex with him.
He was on his way to a conference in Washington last March when he was detained by police.
His family, some of whom were expected to attend the hearing, has claimed he was in failing mental and physical health at the time of his arrest.
A statement last October declared: "He has made a mistake, a grave error of judgment which is totally out of character for him."
Mr Mallon, once a senior executive with the former Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland, used the Internet chatline in February last year to contact a girl called "Marny" who was in reality an FBI agent working on another case.
The "girl" was bombarded with 17 e-mails in 24 minutes by a man claiming to be a rich 42-year-old president of a biotech company.
The hearing at the US District Court in Chicago was expected to start at 4.30 p.m. (Irish time).
PA