Ex-Teacher Gets Decade for Online Exploitation of Minors

BOSTON – Former science teacher John Magee Gavin, 35, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison yesterday for exploiting vulnerable girls online. The case, stemming from a January 2025 investigation, revealed Gavin targeted girls as young as 12 in the US, Canada, and the UK, using a Discord account to groom them.

Gavin, who previously taught at Josiah Quincy Upper School, the Academy of the Pacific Rim, and Brookline Public Schools, posed as a sympathetic figure before demanding sexually explicit images and videos. Local authorities arrested him in February 2025 after charges were filed in Brookline District Court for enticing a child and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The federal indictment in July 2025 detailed a horrifying collection of CSAM found on Gavin’s devices, depicting the sexual assault of minors aged five to seventeen. He pleaded guilty in December 2025 to multiple charges, including coercion, enticement, receiving CSAM, and possessing CSAM. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV imposed the maximum sentence, along with five years of supervised release.

Gavin’s decade-long sentence reflects the severity of his crimes and the lasting trauma inflicted on his young victims. He remains in federal custody, a betrayer of the trust placed in him as an educator.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice