Family stands by underage sex claim civil servant

The family of a top Northern Ireland civil servant facing underage sex charges in the US have promised to stand by him.

They said Stan Mallon, 61, who is being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre, would be strenuously denying all criminal activity and was actively pursuing a number of defences.

He is due back in court again next week accused of crossing a state boundary for the purposes of having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Mallon, from west Belfast, acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency, was arrested outside a Chicago hotel on May 8.

Some of his family have travelled to Chicago.

A statement by family solicitor Kevin Winters said: ‘‘They are convinced of his total innocence and intend to support him in every way possible.’’

Mallon is due in court on March 25 when his legal team has the option to consider seeking bail.

He was detained outside the Amerisuites Hotel after arriving in Chicago on his way to Washington to help promote the Ulster Scots Agency at a time when senior politicians from both sides of the Irish border were in the city for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

US authorities claim he had arranged to have sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl after making repeated contact with her in an Internet chat room. The girl was an undercover police officer, it is alleged. Police in Belfast have confirmed they had been approached by the Chicago police department.

But Mr Winters insisted last night: ‘‘They do not intend to search the family home in connection with these allegations.’’

Mallon used to work for the Northern Ireland Industrial Development Board, once the province’s main jobs creation agency, before being appointed acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency last August.