A US appeal court has ruled a former Northern Ireland official caught in an underage sex sting should have received a longer sentence.
John Mallon (62) of Belfast was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to using the Internet to solicit a sheriff's officer posing as a 14-year-old Chicago girl for sex.
Mallon, the former head of the Ulster-Scots Agency, should have been sentenced to 41 to 51 months, the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled.
The three-judge appeals panel has sent the case back to US District Judge Joan Gottschall for resentencing.
At his trial, Judge Gottschall said Mallon's long-term heart condition had affected his ability to control his impulses and thus propelled him into a scheme to have sexual relations with a girl he knew as "Marny".
But Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote yesterday: "It is awfully hard to describe the crime to which Mallon confessed as the result of poor 'impulse control'.
"Mallon communicated with Marny for more than a month and crossed the Atlantic to meet her. He knew that what he was doing was wrong; Mallon advised Marny not to tell her mother what was going on and to delete from her computer all copies of the communications."
Mallon was arrested in March 2002 in Chicago, where he had arranged his meeting with "Marny". He had been due to visit the White House the following day in his capacity as the head of the Ulster Scots Agency.
AP