A senior civil servant who arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex in a hotel room in the US has been jailed for 21 months.
Stan Mallon claimed he had a vision
Stan Mallon, 62, used an internet chatline to contact a girl called "Marny" who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
He was acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency until his arrest last March in Chicago.
Mallon escaped the maximum sentence of more than four years prison after the judge ruled that he was suffering a "diminished capacity."
The father of five from Crumlin in County Antrim told the court he was
hallucinating when he used the internet chatline in February last year.
'Persuaded by vision'
He sent the "girl" 17 emails in 24 minutes and claimed to be a rich 42-year-old president of a biotech company.
Mallon was arrested in Chicago after arranging to meet her in his hotel room while on his way to a conference in Washington.
Judge Joan Gottschall at the US District Court in Chicago
ruled his behaviour was an "aberration" from his otherwise law-abiding life.
Mallon said his hallucinations led him to believe his son-in-law had appeared to him and told him to contact the girl, US Attorney Markus Funk
Mallon admitted a charge of using the internet to attempt to persuade, induce and entice a juvenile to have sex.
Several members of Mallon's family were in court for the sentencing.
He is due to be released
in nine months, having served a year in jail on remand.
After his arrest, the agency's chairman, Lord Laird, told BBC Radio Ulster: "Mr Mallon was a part-time consultant who was helping us with administrative activities - some of which would be involved as acting as an interim chief executive while we appoint a full-time one."