Ross Hussey MLA leaving Ramada hotel
A high-profile politician is taking huge security risks by meeting total strangers for sex sessions.
Ulster Unionist MLA Ross Hussey last night admitted he had also been reckless in sending nude photos of himself.
“I deserve all I get,” said Mr Hussey.
“I made a terrible error of judgement in sending photos and sincerely regret that my actions have brought me to public attention for all the wrong reasons.”
Several days ago Mr Hussey met an undercover Sunday Life reporter at a Belfast hotel.
He spoke of enjoying meetings with random individuals who he made contact with through a website where many members use fake identities.
Brazen Hussey made the confession after he sent the same journalist an unprompted collection of naked photos of himself, including one full frontal image.
Mr Hussey talked of his bedroom fantasies online before showing up at the hotel last week for what he thought was a sex session with the reporter, who he had never met before and whose name he did not know.
Mr Hussey, 57, is chairman of the Policing Board’s audit and risk committee and like all board members he is subject to a strict code of conduct.
As a member of the Policing Board, he is a target for dissident republicans and, like all members, he has been advised to be aware of his personal security at all times.
But despite these serious safety concerns and strict code of conduct obligations, Mr Hussey travelled 70 miles from his Omagh home to the Ramada Plaza hotel at Shaws Bridge to meet a random internet ‘friend’.
Policing Board rules state members must “not conduct themselves in such a manner as to bring the board into disrepute”.
But by sending a total stranger - whose age he could not know - full-frontal naked photos of himself and then attempting to arrange a sex session in a hotel Mr Hussey may have breached this order.
The West Tyrone MLA’s actions also appear to flout Assembly rules that instruct members to “never undertake any action that would bring the Assembly into disrepute”.
Mr Hussey not only talked about his sex life during his taped hotel conversation with an undercover Sunday Life reporter – he also slagged off other politicians.
The worst of his scorn was reserved for former DUP leader Peter Robinson, making unfounded comments about him during his time as First Minister.
This newspaper was tipped-off about Mr Hussey’s penchant for stranger sex by one of his constituents in Omagh who was able to identity the MLA on the site.
Our source was angry that he voted against gay marriage at Stormont while at the same time using an internet forum to arrange sex sessions with total strangers.
When a Sunday Life reporter signed up to the website it took just seconds to find Mr Hussey’s profile. A picture that accompanied it showed him lying on his back topless with his face clearly in view.
Mr Hussey listed his sexual “interests” including some too graphic to publish.
There was also feedback from other individuals he had met, with one saying after a sexual encounter last March: “Met him for fun, showed up on time, took me to his place, and we both had a happy ending.”
Over a two-month period our undercover journalist exchanged more than a dozen messages with Mr Hussey through the website.
A number of the comments he made were highly sexual.
After sending nude pictures of hiself, Mr Hussey asked for pictures of the reporter in return. From there arrangements were made to meet at the Ramada Plaza hotel in Shaws Bridge in south Belfast ten days ago.
This newspaper had concerns that the person we had been communicating with might not be Mr Hussey, and that someone may have been using his image and details. But it was the MLA who arrived in the lobby bar as agreed.
During a 15-minute chat he talked about his sexual fantasies and how they conflicted with being a member of the Orange Order which insists its members uphold traditional Christian values.
Mr Hussey denied ever paying for prostitutes and said he joined the stranger sex website because those on it “trust each other”.
Encouraging the undercover journalist, he said: “It’s like everything else, you go as far as you want to.”
Mr Hussey then accompanied the undercover reporter from the bar at the Ramada hotel to a pre-booked bedroom.
During the short walk he slagged off the DUP’s former First Minister Peter Robinson and his wife Iris Robinson, whose career ended after she famously had an affair with 19-year-old Kirk McCambley.
The Policing Board member fired off criticisms about other politicians’ lives without a hint of irony about his own behaviour.
After arriving in the hotel room the Sunday Life journalist told Mr Hussey that the meeting could not go any further.
He was courteous and left, saying: “That’s okay, it’s up to you. I don’t mind. Whatever you want. I don’t mind. If you feel uncomfortable, you’re uncomfortable and there’s no point.”
Belfast Telegraph