Former Osbourn teacher to serve 25 years for child porn

A former Manassas teacher was sentenced this morning to serve 25 years in prison for producing child pornography.

Kevin Garfield Ricks, a former teacher at Osbourn High School in Manassas, pleaded guilty in March at U.S. District Court in Alexandria to seven charges of producing and possessing child pornography. Prosecutors said Ricks admitted to sexually assaulting at least nine boys between the ages of 11 and 17 over a 30-year period.

In court documents, federal prosecutors said Ricks had a “pattern of sexually abusing minor boys after plying them with alcohol until they passed out” and then taking “photos and videos of the abuse.”

In a 21-page document filed in federal court last week, prosecutors detailed many of the sexual encounters Ricks had with teen and preteen boys, starting in the 1970’s in North Carolina and ending in Manassas in 2009.

Ricks was arrested in February 2010, after allegations surfaced that he had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy who had been his student at Osbourn High School.

Ricks was convicted in Prince William Circuit Court of taking indecent liberties with a minor for that incident and sentenced to five years in prison, with four years suspended.

After his arrest, investigators searched Ricks’ laptop and his home in Federalsburg, Md., and found hundreds of images of child pornography and handwritten journals, detailing Ricks’ decades of sexually abusing teen boys.

Prosecutors said Ricks worked as a camp counselor, tutor, teacher and foreign exchange student host over the years and abused boys who were in his care.

In court documents, one of Ricks’ victims, a Japanese man who was abused in 1991 when he was 17 and while Ricks worked as a teacher in Japan, described how Ricks made him drink alcolhol until he passed out one night. When the boy woke, he was naked and a camera was pointed at him, he said.

According to court documents, the man was able to confirm that Ricks had sexually abused him when police showed him a video of the abuse.

“It makes me furious. I had no idea that Kevin had been sexually assaulting me in that way. I feel like I can never forgive him for that,” the man told police, according to court documents. “Seeing this video that you just showed me and knowing what Kevin did, I am furious and feel tremendous hatred even though it was 18 years ago.”

The man told police he did not think he would ever forgive Ricks.

“I think that it’s absolutely unforgiveable that Kevin took advantage of his position as teacher to sexually assault his students,” he said.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-530-3908.