By PAMELA GOULD

For a dozen years before his child pornography convictions, James Douglas Manring's life revolved around children in the Fredericksburg area.

Manring, 54, admitted Monday to producing videos of himself sexually abusing at least five boys and two girls at a preschool in Japan between 1996 and 1999, according to a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He also acknowledged videotaping children there playing naked.

He is in federal custody and faces a minimum of 20 years in prison when he's sentenced April 19 on two counts of producing child pornography, according to federal court records.

Since 2000, Manring has lived in southern Stafford and worked at local preschools, taught private music lessons and was active in martial arts at a North Stafford facility.

He came to the attention of federal authorities as part of a U.S. Postal Service investigation related to mailing materials involving sexual exploitation of children; using computers to exploit minors; or using computers to receive, possess or distribute child pornography, a federal affidavit states.

Manring's name came up in the investigation as someone who had purchased exploitive videos, court records show. However, his charges relate to the videos he produced and brought back with him to the United States.

THE CHRONOLOGY

Manring lived in Japan from 1985 to 1999, according to his Facebook page and website.

His Facebook account also details his activities while living in Stafford. It provides an employment history that includes two local schools where he worked with young children as well as references to his involvement as a local music teacher.

Manring worked from 1981 through 1985 at the National Institutes of Health preschool in Bethesda, Md., his page shows and court documents corroborate.

Then he apparently moved to Japan. His website biography say he was in Tokyo from 1985 to 1999, pursuing music and working at a preschool.

The bio says it was a "trail-blazing move" for him to have gotten the preschool position.

"Not only was he the first ever Westerner to be employed as a Japanese preschool teacher, but the first Western male to break into this area of the Japanese society," the bio states.

The crimes for which Manring was charged took place at Remei Hoikuen preschool between 1996 and 1999, according to court records and defense attorney Dickson J. Young of Fairfax.