Ex-officer accused in disturbing sex abuse case involving mother and child
CONROE, Texas -- Phillip Rickard was once a prison guard and a Montgomery County jail detention officer who put criminals behind bars. Now he's on the other side of the law.
He's been in prison as an inmate since 2017, but just last week, another allegation surfaced.
Court records say five years ago, before Rickard went to prison, he encouraged a mother to have sex with her underage son in front of him. The mother has since been charged.
"I had been seeing him for a while and I knew what was happening," the woman told investigators, according to court records. "I knew he was conditioning me."
Tyler Dunman with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office says he sees patterns in cases like these.
"They're often master manipulators and they are very skilled in what they do," Dunman said. "They're very patient and so it's very common for us to see someone with that profile having multiple victims along the way that have been abused."
Dunman fears there could be more victims that have yet to come forward, especially given Rickard's past.
Court records say while he worked in the jail, "Rickard developed personal relationships on and off duty with various inmates," and in at least one case, "would buy things for an inmate in exchange for sexual favors."
"He had a history of doing this while a TDCJ guard," Dunman said. "It's very easy to prey upon, and manipulate and take advantage of those women that he was watching over because they're powerless, and he knows his word would probably overtake their word if they said something."
EX-DETENTION OFFICER BEHIND BARS FOR SEX CRIME
He met some of his victims on a fetish website, according to court records. He ended up going to prison for paying an out-of-state woman to perform a sex act on her infant via Skype.
In fact, court records say he would "... tell people online how to molest children."
