The former top United Nations weapons inspector has been caught in a sex sting.
Scott Ritter, who served as chief weapons inspector in Iraq, told a 15-year-old girl he wanted to have sex with her and also filmed himself carrying out a sex act on a webcam.
But instead of talking to a teenage girl, he was in contact with an undercover police officer in an online chatroom seeking out child predators.
Ritter, 44, is facing up to ten years in jail and a lifetime on the sex offenders register after being charged with child endangerment.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, shown here in 2002, has been charged with child endangerment after an online sting
According to an arrest affidavit, Ritter struck up a conversation in a chat room with a girl called 'Emily'.
Using the name 'Delmarm4fun' he told her he was a 44-year-old male from Albany, New York.
But 'Emily' was officer Ryan Venneman from Barrett Township Police and told Ritter that she was 15-years-old.
Ritter, who is believed to be married, asked for a photo of the girl, then sent her a link to his webcam and began to pleasure himself on camera.
After Emily asked Ritter for his mobile phone number he again asked her age. When she replied she was 15 he said he did not want to get in trouble and turned off the camera.
The arrest warrant said Ritter told Emily he had been fantasising about having sex with her to which she replied: 'Guess you turned it off ...'
Ritter at UN headquarters in Baghdad in an undated image. He claims the charges are a smear campaign in retaliation for his outspoken stance against US policy in the Middle East
Ritter then said: 'You want to see it finish,' reactivated his webcam and continued masturbating.
The online conversation occurred in February 2009, but the investigation lasted until November, when Ritter was charged.
Police had to go to court to get a warrant to obtain Ritter's mobile phone records and computer information.
It is not the first time Ritter, who was an outspoken critic of President Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has been in trouble over contacts with underage girls.
He was involved in an another internet sex sting in New York in June 2001, but that case was dismissed.
He had been charged with attempted child endangerment after arranging in an online chatroom to meet what he thought was a 16-year-old girl at a Burger King restaurant.
The girl turned out to be an undercover policewoman.
Ritter said the criminal charge was a smear campaign in response to his criticising US policy in the Middle East.
The New York Post reported Ritter was caught in a similar case in April 2001 involving a 14-year-old girl, but he was never charged.
He was the chief weapons inspector for the UN from 1991-1998 and charged with finding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
He quit in 1998 after the US failed to take any action against Baghdad over their refusal to co-operate fully with his inspection teams.
He became one of the most outspoken critics of US policy toward Baghdad.
Ritter first made headlines in 1997 when, as a senior UNSCOM member, he was accused by Iraq of being an American spy himself.
He now works as a consultant, and is the author of 'Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America' and 'Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem Once and For All.'