Ex Utah teacher, Scout leader to be sentenced for child porn

A former school teacher and Boy Scout leader — charged with possessing child porn, as well as sexually abusing a child more than 30 years ago — is set to be sentenced Thursday afternoon.

Kenneth William Prince, 61, pleaded guilty in February to five counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation a minor. Each count carries a potential one-to-15 year prison sentence. Originally, Prince was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, but it was pushed back a day.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dismissed another case where the man was charged with two counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

In that case, the alleged abuse victim, now 42 years old, told a South Ogden police officer that Prince performed sexual acts on him multiple times when he was between 12 and 17 years old, according to a probable cause statement filed in court.

During an interview with police, Prince allegedly admitted to sexually abusing the child, according to court documents.

Prince was initially arrested in September after images of child pornography were allegedly found on his home computer.

According to a motion filed earlier this week by Prince's defense attorney, Stephen Farr, the images on the man's computer were found on the Internet, and Prince did not personally know the subjects. However, there was evidence that Prince had taken photographs of Boy Scouts skinny dipping years ago, according to the defense attorney. No charges were ever filed related to those allegations.

The day after Prince was arrested, the former science teacher bailed out of jail and tried to kill himself by ingesting mercury, according to police.

After that suicide attempt, he was charged in 1st District Court with misdemeanor reckless endangerment and use or possession of a psychotoxic chemical. An arraignment has been set in that case for May 27.

The suicide attempt delayed Prince's initial court appearance in the child porn case because health officials recommended he be quarantined to prevent the risk of contaminating others, according to court documents.

Prince was employed as a teacher at South Ogden Junior High School from 1979 to 2008. Police said he also had been a Boy Scout leader for many years in the South Ogden area.

jmiller@sltrib.com

Twitter: @jm_miller