Alexander McCartney sentenced by British court for “catfishing” thousands of people, including an American woman who committed suicide

A Northern Ireland man was sentenced on Friday to a minimum of 20 years in prison after a British court found him guilty of what was described as the biggest crime yet. “catching cats” it’s a matter of country. Alex McCartney, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Northern Ireland court earlier this year after a young American woman who was among thousands of alleged victims he blackmailed online committed suicide.

McCartney admitted in court to a total of 185 charges involving 70 child victims. including blackmailinciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and creating and distributing indecent images of children. He was also found guilty in the death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas in West Virginia, according to the British news agency Press Association.

Thomas, who lived in West Virginia with her mother, father and siblings, died by suicide in May 2018. Authorities say that during her online communications with McCartney, he tried to force her to send graphic images featuring her younger sibling.

McCartney was already under investigation at the time and was about to be charged by British investigators when authorities revealed Cimarron’s identity and the circumstances of her death, CBS News affiliate BBC News reported Friday.

Thomas’s father, a U.S. Army veteran, committed suicide 18 months after his daughter’s death, without knowing any circumstances surrounding Cimarron’s death.

Jim Gamble, a former senior British police officer who specializes in child safety, told BBC News it was a “shocking case.”

“The scale of what’s happening and the horrific nature of the harm done to these young girls makes it one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” Gamble said, adding: “Don’t watch this and think this happens very rarely.”

Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of Northern Ireland’s Police Crime Service released a statement on Friday calling McCartney “nothing more than a despicable child predator who posed as young girls online to groom and manipulate his victims and sexually abuse them at the age of four.” to satisfy their own sexual perversions and those of other online child sex offenders.”

According to the Press Association, McCartney’s crimes occurred between 2014 and 2019, when police believe he stalked around 3,500 victims, mostly through Snapchat, around the world, including in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The case against him at Belfast Crown Court involved 70 child victims, including Thomas.

There was no immediate reaction from Snapchat to McCartney’s Friday verdict. The social messaging app was accused in September having features that make it a favorite platform for sex offenders targeting children in lawsuit New Mexico filed a lawsuit against its parent company Snap Inc.

The state’s undercover investigation found that Snapchat created “an environment in which predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raul Torres said in a news release. release.

In a statement regarding the New Mexico case. Snap said The app was designed “as a place to connect with your close circle of friends, with security barriers built in,” and it said that “design considerations have been made to make it difficult for outsiders to spot minors on our service.”

“We continue to evolve our security mechanisms and policies, from using advanced technologies to detect and block certain activity, to preventing suspicious accounts from being added to your friend list, to collaborating with law enforcement and government agencies, and much more,” the company said, adding that he continued to work with “industry, government and law enforcement to share information and develop stronger defenses.”