Civil servants computers checked in child sex probe

Police in the North were last night examining computers belonging to a senior unionist civil servant being held in the US on alleged child sex charges.

61-year-old Stan Mallon, the acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency, was arrested in Chicago after allegedly arranging to have sex with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

Mr Mallon had allegedly made repeated contact with the girl in an Internet chat room. He was on his way to Washington to promote the Ulster Scots Agency at the time of the arrest.