Convicted Sex Offender Poses As Teen On Instagram, Sends Penis Photos To 12-Year-Old Girl

A convicted sex offender from New York pleaded guilty this week to sending obscene materials, including photos of an adult penis, to a 12-year-old girl over social media while posing as a teenager, prosecutors said.

Ryan Behar, 41, pleaded guilty to the crime Wednesday before a federal court in Brooklyn, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Jacquelyn Kasulis announced in a statement.

Behar also pleaded guilty to committing the offense while required by state law to register as a sex offender, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York stated. He faces a statutory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

According to the statement, Behar contacted the victim on the social media platform Instagram in October 2020 while misrepresenting himself to be a teenage boy.

After telling Behar that she was 12, the victim sent the convicted sex offender an image of a young girl and said, "This is what I look like." Behar responded to the message by asking the victim to send him images of her body, but the girl refused.

Following the girl's refusal, Behar sent a "graphic image of adult male genitals" to the victim — which he claimed was his — and continued to press the victim to send him "full body" images, according to the statement.

Behar was previously convicted in February 2018 before the Richmond County Supreme Court for attempted dissemination of indecent material to a minor in the first degree for a similar crime, the attorney's office said.

At the time, Behar sent sexually explicit material over social media to another female minor victim.

He had been required to register with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services as a level 1 sex offender following his conviction pursuant to the state's Sex Offender Registration Act.