Intern tells of sexual encounter with disgraced Republican

A former Capitol Hill intern has revealed he had a sexual encounter with a disgraced Republican Congressman after receiving an explicit e-mail from him in which he also talked about the sexual orientation of other young men.

The intern, a so-called House page, said he received an e-mail from Mark Foley, who recently resigned from the Senate amid a growing scandal about electronic messages he sent to young boys. "I always knew you were a player but I don't fool around with pages," Mr Foley said in one message.

The page said he had responded to Mr Foley and that the two had sex in late 2000 when he was aged 21 and then a student in the north-eastern United States.

The young man told the Los Angeles Times that when he was an intern in Washington the pages would gossip about Mr Foley and referred to him as "Triple F" or "Florida Fag Foley". "It seemed cool that he was taking an interest," he said.

The FBI and the House Ethics Committee have launched investigations following Mr Foley's resignation 10 days ago after revelations that he had been having sexually explicit electronic conversations with pages. Mr Foley has denied any improper relationships with the young men.

The former page said that after he left the intern programme he began receiving messages from Mr Foley and that the exchanges quickly became explicit. Using the instant messenger name Maf54, Mr Foley asked about the size of the young man's erection. "I always thought you were gay," said Mr Foley. The young man replied: "Is it obvious?"