A former top United Nations weapons inspector caught in an online sex sting was convicted in the US late yesterday for exchanging explicit messages with who he thought was a 15-year-old girl in a chatroom and then performing a sex act on himself.
Scott Ritter (49) was in fact exchanging the messages with a detective posing as the underage girl. Neither Ritter, who will be sentenced next month, nor his lawyer, commented outside court in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
Ritter, one of the UN’s chief weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, resigned after accusing the US and the UN of failing to get tough with Saddam Hussein. He later said that Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction and became a vocal critic of the US invasion.
The jury in his trial deliberated two days before finding Ritter guilty of six of the seven charges against him. One was a misdemeanor, indecent exposure, and the rest were felonies, including three charges of unlawful conduct with a minor, criminal attempt to corrupt a minor and criminal use of a communications device.
Each of the five felony charges carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. No sentencing date was set and Ritter remains free on $25,000 bail.
Assistant district attorney Michael Rakaczewski said Ritter was convicted "by his own actions and by his own words on the stand."
At one point during the trial, the jury watched a graphic video recording of a nude Ritter performing a sexual act captured on his computer web camera for young "Emily."
Posing as "Emily," Detective Ryan Venneman twice gave her age as 15. The chat and video occurred in February of 2009.
Ritter testified at the trial and part of his defense was that he did not believe he was really talking to a 15-year-old, but instead an adult pretending to be a minor.
Ritter's wife, who testified in his defense, and twin daughters, Victoria and Patricia (18) attended the trial at Monroe County Common Pleas Court in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.