Disgraced volleyball coach and teacher Markus Hicks came face to face today with the young student athletes he deceived, used and sexually abused.
Three of the half dozen victims chose to read their impact statements aloud, the shame, guilt, anger and disgust moving most in the packed courtroom to tears.
They spoke of innocence taken and trust betrayed by the person who was supposed to mentor and prepare them for the future.
Instead, they were deceived by Hicks’ “unspeakably grotesque intentions,” all the while wondering how he was able to get away with it for so long.
Markus Hicks in courtroom (VOCM News)
Hicks would connect with victims on social media, pretending to be a woman, with the promise of sex through a so-called glory hole in his house.
He was facing more than 200 charges but he has pleaded guilty to 54. They include sexual assault, child luring, using a disguise, possessing and accessing child pornography, sexual exploitation and breach of trust.
“Staying quiet is exactly what he wants,” one victim said of his need to speak, just a few feet away from Hicks.
Another said it made him doubt his volleyball skills, and whether he made a team because he was good enough or if Hicks just wanted him.
And a third young man spoke of his daily regimen of “two showers a day to wash Markus off.”
The sentencing phase will resume in the new year, at the end of January.
