Anthony Weiner: Ex-congressman ordered to register as sex offender ahead of prison release

Disgraced politician will stay on register for 20 years after ‘sexting’ 15-year-old girl

Anthony Weiner leaves federal court in New York in 2017 (AP)

Once considered a rising star in the Democratic party, former congressman Anthony Weiner‘s has been ordered to register as a sex offender as he nears the end of his prison sentence for having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl.

Designated as a “level 1” sex offender by a New York City judge, meaning that he is thought to have a low risk of reoffending, the disgraced politician has been living in a halfway house since February after serving most of his 21-month sentence at a Massachusetts jail.

The 54-year-old is set to be released on 14 May, but faces a further three years of court supervision.

Weiner must remain on the sex offenders register for a minimum of 20 years. He is required to verify his address every year, notify the state within 10 days of moving and visit a police station every three years to have a new picture taken.

Because of his low-level designation, Weiner’s information will not be displayed on New York state’s online sex offender registry but will be available via a free-to-call number.

Weiner pleaded guilty in May 2017 to transferring obscene material to a minor.

Prosecutors said he had a series of sexually explicit Skype and Snapchat exchanges with a North Carolina high school student and encouraged the teen to strip naked and touch herself sexually.

At his sentencing, Weiner said he had been a “very sick man for a very long time” and said he had a sex addiction.

His lawyer said he had likely exchanged thousands of messages with hundreds of women over the years and was communicating with up to 19 women when he encountered the teenager.

Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 following his first sex scandal. After sending a lewd picture of himself to a college student, he claimed his account had been hacked, then admitted online interactions with at least six other women while married to top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Despite the fall-out, he attempted to make a political comeback with a run for New York City mayor in 2013. Then came the revelation that Weiner had used the alias “Carlos Danger” to send explicit photos to at least one woman after resigning from Congress.

Weiner won less than 5 per cent of the Democratic primary vote.

His doomed comeback was the subject of 2016 fly-on-the-wall documentary Weiner.

Ms Abedin filed for divorce from Weiner in 2017. But the two, who have a young son together, later agreed to discontinue the case in order to negotiate their separation privately.

The investigation into Weiner’s contact with the 15-year-old impacted upon the 2016 presidential campaign because emails Ms Clinton had sent to Ms Abedin were found on a laptop computer seized from him by FBI agents.