Man sentenced to 33 years for helping Philly private school teacher to catfish students, sharing explicit photos
“Mr. Wolf would not have been successful in victimizing those students, that community, but for Mr. Strange,” prosecutors said.
One month after completing court-ordered sex offender treatment, Kray Strange sent a message to a popular math teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, complimenting the sexually violent online fiction the educator penned in secret by night. Eventually, Strange — then a 19-year-old New York college student — offered to help the teacher coerce young boys into sending them explicit photos of themselves.
“Do you have any boys you want me to bait?” Strange wrote via encrypted Telegram chat, according to court documents.
Between May 2020 and October 2021, in more than 27,000 online chat messages and 4,000 image files, prosecutors say, the two conspired to form an elaborate catfishing scheme to trick hundreds of minors into sending sexually explicit videos and photos over social media.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney sentenced Strange to 33 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release, calling his crimes “among the most egregious” the judge had seen.
Strange’s role was to build rapport with the boys, using fake Snapchat profiles of teens and engaging them in games of “Truth or Dare” to solicit their explicit photos and videos. And the Philadelphia teacher — Andrew Wolf, who was sentenced last month to nearly 39 years in prison — provided Strange a list of 78 current, former, and future students at the Chestnut Hill private school to exploit.
» READ MORE: Philly private school teacher sentenced to nearly 39 years for catfishing students, sharing their explicit photos
When the boys became reticent to provide photos, Strange — under Wolf’s instruction — would threaten to leak the images if they did not send more.
Strange’s exploitation extended beyond the walls of Chestnut Hill, prosecutors said. He also targeted boys he knew, including his college roommates’ younger brothers, family friends, and former high school classmates. And he suggested potential child victims to Wolf at neighboring schools in Lower Merion and at Episcopal Academy.
“He was targeting kids that he was jealous of, kids that he viewed as popular,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly M. Harrell told the judge, noting that in particular, Strange sought to exploit Little League World Series players, children of political figures, and child TikTok stars.
In court Friday, the judge turned to Strange and asked, “Why do you think you’re here today?”
“Because I ruined lives because of what I did,” Strange responded.
No victims spoke during the hearing, but several of their parents attended, watching quietly from the gallery. Kearney said he read their letters detailing how Strange had upended the children’s families’ lives, and also took into consideration the statements of parents and victims who spoke during Wolf’s sentencing of the torment their sons now face.
Based on his Telegram chats, prosecutors said Strange exploited more than 200 victims by sending their photos to Wolf. Harrell asked the judge to consider “the sheer number” of victims in the case when deciding on a sentence. She also reminded the judge that Strange had impersonated a young girl online to gain the illicit photos, redistributed the photos to a network of other offenders online, and continued to do so after Wolf was arrested. He only stopped, prosecutors said, when he was arrested in January 2022.
“Mr. Wolf would not have been successful in victimizing those students, that community, but for Mr. Strange,” she said.
And, she noted, this wasn’t Strange’s first offense. His interactions with Wolf and coercing of minors began just one month after he completed a court-ordered yearlong sex offender treatment for sexually abusing children when he was a teenager and while he had court-ordered restrictions placed on his contact with minors and internet access.
“You had two shots at this and you know what’s going on,” the judge told Strange. “You knew exactly what you were doing. And to say [this is] youthful ignorance or immaturity — I don’t buy it.”
FBI agents found that Strange had sent more than 10,500 messages in a Telegram group chat discussing child sex abuse with other offenders, and had also offered his self-described “baiting” services to another teacher and youth hockey coach who is now facing charges in San Diego.
Strange’s parents attended the hearing, and his father, Spencer, told the judge: “I grieve for the victims.”
“I would like to say that I love my son. I will not ever stop loving him. My wife loves our son. And she will never stop loving him. These crimes that he’s committed are terrible. And we put his future in your hands because we know you will judge him fairly,” he said, choking back tears. Spencer Strange added that he speaks to his son in prison daily over the phone, and that he believes there’s still room for his son’s redemption under their Mormon faith.
For his part, Strange apologized for his conduct, but told the judge “the fact that I’m sorry doesn’t matter.
“From the depths of my soul, I wish I could undo what I did,” he said, calling himself “guilty of probably one of the most horrendous things that somebody could do.”
Standing before the judge in a green prison jumpsuit, he thanked the FBI agent on the case, who was in the courtroom, “for stopping this conduct — which I could have done myself and I didn’t.”
Strange’s attorney, Barnaby C. Wittels, added, “He truly does not want to be who he’s been.”
In addition to sentencing Strange to three decades in prison and a lifetime of supervision, Kearney ordered him to register as a sex offender, and prohibited him from owning an electronic device that’s not approved by his probation officer.
The judge also ordered Strange to pay restitution to his victims from money he earns in prison.
“I want you to be mindful every single month that there’s victims of what you did,” he said.