Former Us Weekly gossip columnist Timothy McDarrah, arrested in New York last year by undercover federal agents, has been found guilty of charges related to soliciting sex with a minor.

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McDarrah, 44, responded in June 2005 to a posting on the craigslist.com Web site offering introductions to the “freshest, youngest” girls in New York, an FBI affidavit said. The gossip writer told an undercover FBI agent, who had posted the advertisement to lure pedophiles, that he would pay $200 for sex with a 13-year-old girl, the affidavit said.

After his arrest, McDarrah was suspended without pay from his post as the editor of Us Weekly’s “Hot Stuff” column. From 2002 to 2004, he worked as a gossip columnist at the Las Vegas Sun.