The Police Service of Northern Ireland is examining computers belonging to the acting chief executive of the Ulster Scots Agency who is being held in the US on child sex charges.
Detectives went to the home and office of Mr Stan Mallon (61), to study his computer, especially his use of the Internet. Mr Mallon, who is from west Belfast, is being held in Chicago after allegedly arranging to have sex with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl following contact made on an Internet chat room.
Ulster Unionist peer and chairman of the Ulster Scots Agency, Lord Laird, said his organisation was co-operating fully with the authorities. He said Mr Mallon was not in Chicago on agency business.
"His official business was in Washington and I was to meet him there.
"It was understood that before going to Washington, he wanted to be in Chicago on his own time to see friends and family," Lord Laird said.
He said Mr Mallon's economy class fare from the UK to Chicago had been paid by the agency and Mr Mallon had agreed to pay the cost of flying from there to Washington himself.
Mr Mallon once worked for the Northern Ireland Industrial Development Board, before being appointed to his current position last August.
Last night Mr Mallon's family pledged to stand by him and said he would be strenuously denying all criminal activity and was actively pursuing a number of defences.