PAUL Berry, the DUP’s Newry and Armagh candidate in Thursday’s Westminster elections, appeared to be keeping a low profile on Monday following an allegation in a Sunday newspaper that he took part in a gay sex act in a Belfast hotel.

Mr Berry, who is married and an MLA for the area, failed to answer his phone when The Democrat attempted to ring him on several occasions on Monday, although it is understood that he strongly refutes the allegations which appeared in The Sunday World. A DUP source said that the matter raised a number of serious legal issues which lawyers are now pursuing on Mr Berry’s behalf.

However, the same source was unwilling to comment on whether Mr Berry will still stand in this week’s elections or on whether the party’s leadership has discussed the issue with him. Sunday’s story alleged that Mr Berry met a gay man called Gary in the Ramada Hotel on Thursday for what the politician said was a massage to help his recovery from a sports injury.

While Mr Berry admitted meeting Gary, he has denied that any sex act took place, although he is quoted in the newspaper as saying that the other man attempted to remove his (Mr Berry’s) boxer shorts. According to Gary, he first made contact with Mr Berry through an internet chat room and then received more than 120 text messages during a six day period before the meeting was arranged.

Gary then alleges that he massaged the top of Mr Berry’s leg after being told that he had been injured playing football and then his side after the politician said that he had hurt himself when he fell over a fence. It was during this massage that Gary alleges that a sex act took place. In the Sunday World article,

Mr Berry is quoted as saying that he is the victim of what he described as a ‘rig-up’ by his political opponents, specifically the Ulster Unionist Party. For his part,

Gary insisted that his actions were not politically inspired, but were instead motivated by his anger at the attitude of the DUP and the Free Presbyterian Church towards gay people.