16 January,2010 07:34 AM IST | | Agencies
Scott Ritter (pictured), a former weapons inspector for the United Nations, has been accused of having inappropriate contact with a teen.
Police here said that last year, Ritter contacted a 15-year-old girl in an internet chat room, engaged in a sexual conversation and showed himself masturbating on a web camera.u00a0
Ritter was caught as the 'teen' was actually a detective who was investigating internet sex crimes.
An angry Ritter refused to comment and asked reporters outside his home to leave.
Previous crime
This is the second time Ritter has been caught in an internet sexu2013sting operation.
In 2001, he had allegedly tried to lure a 16-year-old girl to a fast food outlet only to find that the 'girl' was an undercover investigator posing online as a minor to investigate internet sex crime.
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That arrest came to light two years later, when Ritter a chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991u201398 was widely criticising the war against Iraq.
With news of his arrest being widely publicised in the media, Ritter lost his standing as a war critic.
This time, if he is convicted of the most serious charge he has been accused of, he can be jailed for up to seven years.
