A former New York high school teacher has pleaded guilty to seeking nude images from underage girls and distributing sexually abusive material online.
Ryan McCaffery, 38, received a three-year prison sentence on October 21 after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said McCaffery admitted to disseminating indecent material to minors in the first degree, a sexually motivated felony.
Court records show that McCaffery appeared before Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen M. Wilutis in September 2025 and confessed to the offenses.
“You’ve been given a gift, Mr. McCaffery,” Judge Wilutis said during sentencing, Newsday reported.
The judge said she hoped he understood the significance of the sentence and added that the agreed-upon punishment was “quite frankly … not enough.”
“You were in a position of trust as a teacher, akin to a guardian of children or a surrogate parent,” Wilutis told him.
Police said McCaffery faced two counts of second-degree sexual assault, two counts of third-degree child endangerment and two counts of fourth-degree lewdness in Bergen County.
Ryan McCaffery, 38, was sentenced to three years in prison on October 21 after pleading guilty to requesting nude images from underage girls and sharing sexual abuse material online.
The former teacher allegedly created a fake Snapchat identity, using the alias “C_chambers77,” and sent images of his exposed genitals to girls younger than 14.
McCaffery previously worked as a teacher and soccer coach at Riverhead High School.
The case began after New York State Police received a cyber tip through the Internet Crimes Against Children reporting system, investigators said.
McCaffery, a former Riverhead High School teacher and soccer coach, was initially arrested in Bergen County, New Jersey, in February 2025.
He resigned from his teaching job before that arrest.
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Although he was released, police arrested him again in New York in May 2025 as the investigation continued.
Investigators later searched his residence under a warrant and seized several electronic devices. They said the devices contained explicit material.
The investigation also uncovered an online sexual chat from 2022 between McCaffery and a 13-year-old juvenile, leading to his arrest, authorities said.
New York State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office subsequently determined that McCaffery had been using the alias “C_chambers77” while engaging in sexual acts during Snapchat video chats with victims.
Prosecutors said he created the fraudulent social media account and “quick added” several young girls to his Snapchat contacts in December 2024.
He allegedly sent the girls images of his exposed genitals and pressured those younger than 14 to send nude photographs in return, prosecutors said.
McCaffery also tried to watch and buy child sexual abuse images and videos, the prosecutors said.
He shared at least one explicit video with another user on the messaging app Kik, Tierney said.
‘Adults have a responsibility to protect children, not expose them to sexually explicit material,’ Tierney said.
‘The defendant’s conduct was deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable. Children should never have to navigate this kind of exploitation or have their innocence stolen by an adult’s actions.’
‘This sentence holds the defendant accountable for conduct that has no place in our community,’ he added.
McCaffery will also serve five years of post-release supervision.
NYSP has urged anyone who believes that their child received inappropriate communications from the suspect to contact the police.
