As a camp counselor in North Carolina in 1979, Kevin Ricks, then age 19, performed sex acts on an 11-year-old deaf camper Ricks had invited to his parents’ home.
That was Ricks’ first victim, according to federal prosecutors, and the beginning of a chain of sexual abuse of young boys that continued until the former Manassas high school teacher was arrested last year.
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Ricks, now 50, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, admitting that he got boys in his care drunk, fondled them and took sexually explicit photographs and videos. That abuse occurred across the globe for more than three decades, Ricks admitted in a statement of facts submitted with the plea documents.
He pleaded guilty to six counts of production of child pornography and one possession charge.
Ricks was a “master manipulator,” said Neil MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The case is a “chilling reminder to parents and kids that sometimes the face of evil is the familiar,” MacBride said.
Ricks was an English teacher at Osbourn High School when he was arrested last February and accused of having sex with a former student. Ricks pleaded guilty to the indecent liberties with a child charge in Prince William County Circuit Court last year and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Federal investigators found child pornography when they searched his laptop after that arrest, leading to the new charges. He will be sentenced to 25 years in the federal case, his plea agreement says.
Clad in green prison garb Thursday, Ricks answered “guilty” for his plea to each count. He spoke in court only to answer District Judge James C. Cacheris’ questions and affirm that, among other things, the plea was voluntary and he understood he was giving up his right to a trial.
Ricks moved to Japan to teach English in 1988. He moved back to the United States in 1996 and has lived in both Virginia and Maryland since then.
In both countries, Ricks got students he taught or exchange students he hosted drunk — often with shots of tequila — then stripped them naked, performed sex acts on them, and took photographs, court documents say.
He was also facing state charges in North Carolina and Maryland, but North Carolina authorities have agreed to dismiss the charges, said Brian Mizer, Ricks’ public defender. Similar discussions are under way in Maryland, Mizer said.
