The Labour Party paid a sex offender convicted in the United States more than £2,500 to help it with its 2005 election campaign, the BBC has learned.
Activist Tim Russo, 41, was a visits co-ordinator in the East Midlands but did not have a UK work visa.
The Labour Party said it was unaware of Russo's past. It said it had not hired him but only paid expenses.
Russo was convicted in 2002 of trying to arrange sex with someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy.
The person he met online was in fact an FBI officer investigating internet paedophiles.
I don't know why or how this story has only just emerged. What I do know is that ex-offenders do gain employment both abroad and in the UK. In spite of the BBC headline, Russo has not been caught having sex with an under aged boy. That may well have been his intention. In reality, he was the subject of a FBI sting operation. There is something unsavoury about entrapment.
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