Judges retire in appeal case

Prosecutors argue Mallon was a 'highly-functioning individual'

Three Chicago judges have retired to consider an appeal by the US Attorney to keep a Northern Ireland man who admitted a sex offence in prison.

Stan Mallon was jailed for 21 months in March, after arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex in a hotel room in the US.

He admitting using an internet chatroom to contact the girl, who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

The incident happened when Mallon was on a stopover in Chicago on his way to a White House reception.

The former acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency escaped the maximum sentence of more than four years in prison after the judge ruled that he was suffering a "diminished capacity".

Mallon was due to be released from prison on Wednesday, but that was delayed until the appeal was heard.

On Thursday, three US Appeal Court judges heard oral arguments in the case brought by prosecutors who said his sentence was too lenient. They argued that it should be doubled.

Judgement

They have argued that Mallon was a "highly-functioning individual" when he set up the liaison.

A ruling is expected within the next few days.

Mallon, a father-of-five from Crumlin, County Antrim, who is in his 60s, was to have been deported on Friday.

His American lawyers said his continued incarceration - when he has completed his sentence - was magnifying and continuing his hardship.

They said his continued imprisonment in America was doing him "irreparable medical and psychiatric harm".

It has also emerged that when he does return home he will not automatically be placed on the sex offenders register, as the offence happened outside the UK jurisdiction.