Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Court told former DUP mayor denies child sex rap
A FORMER DUP mayor has denied two charges of child sexual offences.
Thomas Hogg, 31, is accused of sexual communication with a child and alleged attempted incitement to engage in sexual activity.
Both charges relate to a specified date of September 28 this year.
Hogg appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court yesterday.
During the brief hearing, the court heard a detective say he believed he could connect the accused with the charges.
The court heard Hogg, from Brae Hill Park, Belfast, strongly denies the charges. His next court appearance will take place on December 9. District Judge Fiona Bagnall excused Hogg from attending on that date.
The 31-year-old resigned from the DUP earlier this month after he was charged with the offences.
He also resigned as a councillor in Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.
He served as mayor of Newtownabbey from 2014 to 2015 and was awarded an MBE in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to local government.
SHAMED Keith Vaz was accused of deliberately obstructing the probe into his sordid night with two prostitutes where he offered to buy drugs, a damning report revealed.
And the Labour MP now faces the longest ever Commons suspension of six months after the romps at his London flat were exposed by the Sunday Mirror.
Mr Vaz also caused “significant damage” to the reputation and integrity of the Commons by failing to co-operate fully with the inquiry into the scandal.
The Sunday Mirror told how the 62-year-old married dad-of-two claimed to be a washing machine salesman named Jim when the two men were invited to his apartment in August 2016.
He offered to cover the cost of cocaine for them but insisted he did not want any himself. Mr Vaz told investigators he did not pay for sex and the men were there to discuss “decorating his flat”.