Mallon Sex Sentence Doubled.

By Sean O’Driscoll

A CHICAGO judge has doubled the two-year sentence she imposed on former Ulster Scots Agency chief Stan Mallon for trying to lure a 14-year-old girl for sex. 

However, Mallon launched a stinging criticism of the prosecutor on a live courtroom link up from his prison cell and angrily said that he was the only victim in the case. He accused one prosecutor of being “cruel” and said that he had been recalled from the airport after he was released from prison to that the court could impose an even higher sentence. 

Mallon also told the court he didn’t know how the prosecutor could sleep at night for ruinning his life. He had been convicted last year of using the Internet to lure a 14-year-old girl, in reality an undercover Chicago police officer. 

At the time of his arrest, Mallon had been head of the Ulster Scots Agency, an organization set up under the Good Friday Agreement to promote the Protestant Ulster-Scots dialect in Northern Ireland. 

Many Nationalists criticized the organization as a Unionist trick to block funds for the Irish language movement in Northern Ireland, but the London and Dublin governments have funded the agency since 1998. 

Mallon was due in the White House only days after his arrest for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on behalf of the Ulster Scots Agency. He had told colleagues that he had to take a detour to Chicago to meet relatives. 

Mallon’s lengthy statement to the court did nothing to save him from an increased sentence, in what has been a huge legal battle by prosecutors to ensure that Mallon served time according to pre-set guidelines. 

An appeal court had strongly criticized a ruling by Judge Joan Gottschell in which she allowed evidence of Mallon’s alleged mental impairment when considering the correct sentence. The appeal court said it was clear from the amount of sophisticated planning that Mallon had not acted irrationally because of his alleged heart condition. 

The appeal court sent the case back to Judge Gottschall with an order to impose a higher sentence. It also rejected defense claims that Mallon would suffer a greater prison hardship as a foreigner and should get a lighter sentence. 

This week, Judge Gottschall made up the deficit by doubling Mallon’s sentence. Mallon made his angry address to the court via closed-circuit television. 

He read a long statement, calling prosecutors “cruel” for seeking so much prison time for a “victimless” crime. “I am the victim,” he said. 

Mallon has been married for 40 years. He has five children and 10 grandchildren.