18:25 ET<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\nThe trial of a former UN weapons inspector who is facing charges of unlawful sexual contact with a minor has opened in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Scott Ritter, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, had a sexually graphic online chat in 2009 with an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
Mr Ritter’s lawyer said his client did not think he was speaking with a minor.<\/p>\n
If convicted, the 49-year-old could face up to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n
Police Detective Ryan Venneman, from Barrett Township in the state of Pennsylvania, testified that Mr Ritter, a former US Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War, initiated the conversation through a Yahoo chatroom in February 2009.<\/p>\n
Mr Ritter then allegedly performed a sex act on himself in front of a web camera, despite the officer’s repeated claims that he was a 15-year-old girl named Emily.<\/p>\n
Graphic video chat<\/span><\/p>\nMr Venneman told jurors Mr Ritter had supplied his mobile telephone number to him and touched himself while speaking through a video chat.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors then played a graphic 20-minute video of the conversation for the jury.<\/p>\n
But Mr Ritter’s lawyer, Gary Kohlman, said his client believed he was holding a conversation with an adult.<\/p>\n
“There will not be a shred of evidence that Mr Ritter in his entire life ever has had an inappropriate conversation with a minor,” Mr Kohlman said.<\/p>\n
“Ritter at no stage in his chat with Officer Venneman ever once believed that he was doing anything other than speaking and chatting with an adult,” he added.<\/p>\n
The jury must now decide whether Mr Ritter had believed the person on the other end of the chat was a minor or an adult.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, Mr Ritter was charged in New York with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
Those charges – which Mr Ritter claimed were politically motivated – were dismissed after he completed six months of probation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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