A Warner man is accused of sexually assaulting a child at gunpoint more than two decades ago, according to court records.

Ricky Flanders, 49, was recently indicted in Merrimack County Superior Court on nine counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. Four of those counts allege he threatened to use physical violence in order to force the boy to comply.

Prosecutors allege Flanders sexually assaulted the boy multiple times between Aug. 19, 1988, and Aug. 18, 1993. The boy was under the age of 13 at the time and known to Flanders, according to an affidavit.

The first assault reportedly took place when the boy was about 11 years old. According to the affidavit, Flanders pointed a revolver handgun at the child’s head and demanded that he perform oral sex. Flanders then ordered the boy to undress and lie on the bed, where Flanders raped him further, the affidavit says.

Flanders threatened the child to stay quiet and not tell anyone about what had taken place after each assault, police said.

The Warner Police Department began its investigation of Flanders this past summer, after the alleged victim, now an adult, came forward. The man told police he is “emotionally disturbed” by the abuse and had long feared coming forward because of how Flanders might respond, according to the affidavit. He explained further that he did not want to put his family in harms way.

During that same June interview, the man told police he knows “several people” who suffered similar sexual abuse by Flanders but are too afraid to tell their stories for fear of retaliation.

The man said he saw Flanders a couple of months before going to police, and that Flanders reminded him to keep quiet. During their conversation, Flanders allegedly lifted his shirt to display a firearm in the waistband of his pants.

Police arrested Flanders without incident Aug. 2. A district court judge initially set Flanders’s bail at $126,000 cash only.

About two months later, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Richard McNamara reduced Flanders’ bail to $25,000 on the condition that, if he posts, he participate and be monitored by the county’s pretrial services program. As of Friday afternoon, he remained behind bars at the county jail in Boscawen.

Flanders is scheduled to be arraigned on the nine felony charges Nov. 10 in Concord.

(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com.)