December 2003 Mallon sentence doubled to 41 months A former Northern Ireland official snared in an underage sex sting has been given an extra 20 months in jail after judges ruled his original sentence was too lenient. John Mallon, 62, of Belfast, was sentenced yesterday to 41 months and fined €3,673 for trying to lure someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl named Marny into a sexual encounter. Marny was actually a Chicago police officer assigned to catch adults who contact youngsters over the internet. Mallon, former head of the Ulster Scots Agency created by the Northern Ireland peace agreement, appeared in court via video link from Allenwood Correctional Facility. He angrily denounced Assistant US Attorney Markus Funk, who prosecuted the case, and declared that he was being sentenced for committing a “victimless crime”. Mallon claimed that he was the real victim. District Judge Joan Gottschall had sentenced Mallon to 21 months. But a three-judge panel of the seventh US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with prosecutors the sentence was too lenient. The appeals panel sent the case back to Judge Gottschall for resentencing in a range of 41 to 51 months. She had given Mallon the 21-month sentence, saying a long-term heart condition had affected his ability to control his impulses, leading him to stop off in Chicago for a meeting with Marny while on his way to Washington for a White House reception. The appeals court said it was hard to see his actions as a failure of impulse control, since he had communicated with Marny for more than a month before arriving in Chicago. Mallon had told Marny he was a 47-year-old single business executive. He actually had been married for 40 years and had five children and 10 grandchildren. Police officers who searched his home after the arrest found numerous computer communications between Mallon and girls who claimed to be under 16, the appeals court said. Mallon is due for release in February 2005. After that he is expected to leave the country immediately. If he doesn’t, the US government will have him deported, prosecutors said.