69-Year-Old School Cafeteria Worker Arrested for Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material
A Westchester middle school cafeteria employee, 69, was charged with felony possession and distribution of child sexual abuse images after police found illegal files at his home.
Yorktown police detained Francis John Teeling, a 69-year-old cafeteria worker at Lakefield Copper Beech Middle School in the Lakeland School District, after a joint investigation with the Westchester County District Attorney’s High Technology Crime Squad uncovered child sexual abuse material on his computer. The illegal content included images of female children ranging from five to ten years old, some of which had been uploaded to Microsoft Bing.
Teeling was arraigned in Yorktown Town Court and charged with promoting and possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, offenses that can result in a sentence of up to 11 years. He entered a not-guilty plea and is being held on $10,000 cash bail, $25,000 bond, and a $50,000 partially secured bond. The investigation stemmed from a referral by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the New York State Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Westchester District Attorney Susan Cacace urged parents to monitor their children’s online activity as the new school year approaches.
Why it matters
The arrest highlights ongoing threats of child exploitation and the need for vigilant online safety measures.
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