A senior Northern Ireland civil servant who arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex in his Chicago hotel room has been jailed for 21 months.
Stan Mallon, 62, the ex-chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency, escaped the maximum sentence of over four years after the judge ruled that he was suffering a "diminished capacity" at the time of the crime.
The court heard that the father of five, from Crumlin, Co Antrim, was hallucinating when he used an internet chatline in February last year to contact a girl called "Marny", who was in reality an FBI agent.
The "girl" was bombarded with 17 e-mails in 24 minutes by Mallon, who claimed to be a rich 42-year-old president of a biotech company.
He was arrested last March after arranging to meet her in his hotel room during a stopover on the way to a conference in Washington.
Mallon wept when Judge Joan Gottschall at the US District Court in Chicago ruled his behaviour was an "aberration" from his otherwise law-abiding life.
The court heard that Mallon hallucinated, believing his son-in-law had appeared to him, encouraging him to contact the girl, US Attorney Markus Funk told the Press Association.
The former senior executive with the Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland had 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.
Mallon has already served a year in jail on remand and is due to be released in nine months.