Online predator gets life in UK’s biggest catfishing case – DW – 10/25/2024

A court in the United Kingdom has sentenced a 26-year-old man to life in prison after he was found guilty of 185 charges, including the manslaughter of a girl who committed suicide, child sexual abuse and online blackmail.

Alexander McCartney posed as a teenage girl to befriend young women around the world on messaging apps and then blackmail them, a court in Belfast, Northern Ireland has heard.

One of his victims, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia, USA, committed suicide in 2018 with her father’s gun during an online contact with McCartney.

McCartney, from South Armagh in Northern Ireland, admitted charges against 70 children and was told he would spend at least 20 years behind bars.

McCartney pretended to be a teenage girl

The court heard the computer science student groomed victims around the world using messaging sites including Snapchat and Instagram.

Prosecutors said McCartney led his victims to believe they were talking online to a teenage girl of the same age.

He then encouraged them to send indecent images or engage in sexual activity via webcam or mobile phone and then post them online.

The court was told the images were then used to threaten his victims.

He sometimes forced his victims to involve their three-year-old siblings in the violence.

One extortion victim and her father committed suicide

One of his victims, Cimarron Thomas, committed suicide in May 2018 after McCartney demanded that a 12-year-old girl engage her little sister in sex acts to which he forced her.

Eighteen months later, her distraught father Ben Thomas also committed suicide.

McCartney previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Cimarron’s death.

Although the charges involved 70 children, police said McCartney is believed to have targeted around 3,500 victims in around 30 countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78QgJW0191I2q3Pe

The court previously heard McCartney’s victims were located in the UK, mainland Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

McCartney on Friday also admitted 59 counts of blackmail, dozens of charges related to the production and distribution of indecent photographs, and multiple charges of inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

McCartney sat with his head down as the judge described his crimes and stood with his eyes closed when the verdict was announced.

He was taken away in handcuffs.

Reaction to McCartney’s verdict

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan said McCartney was a “disgusting child predator” whose crimes were on an “industrial scale”.

“Sitting in his childhood bedroom in Newry, he began committing crimes as a teenager and built what can only be described as a pedophile enterprise,” he told reporters outside the court.

“McCartney is a dangerous, ruthless and violent pedophile,” he added.

In the Cimarron Thomas case, Corrigan told reporters that McCartney even started the countdown when she threatened to kill herself with a legal firearm, telling her, “I don’t care.”

“He might as well have pulled the trigger himself,” he added. “There’s only one place for him – behind bars.”

mm/l (AFP, Reuters)