Posted by Alexander McCartney jailed for minimum of 20 years
Alexander McCartney, 26, from County Armagh, is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years after admitting to the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice O’Hara said McCartney was remorseless in carrying out crimes of “sadism and depravity” which “scarred” the childhoods of his victims
“Our lives will never be the same again, ” the grandparents of Cimarron Thomas, the girl who took her own life after being abused by McCartney, said in a statement to court
Police believe he targeted around 3,500 children across 30 countries
McCartney was at the centre of one of the world’s largest catfishing cases – which is when someone uses a fake identity online to target another person, usually for abuse or fraudPolice believe that Alexander McCartney targeted around 3,500 children in more than 30 countries around the world.
He had 64 devices that he was using to contact his victims.
Prosecutors said he was offending so frequently that it was hard to know how he had time to do anything else.
He messaged so many children that he even copied and pasted his messages to them to save time.
Police were able to track some of his victims down as he had kept screenshots of their Snapchat location pins.
When police turned up at the door it was often the first time they had told their parents what had been happening to them.New York to New Zealandpublished at 17:0017:00
The litany of McCartney’s crimes spanned continents.
BBC News NI has spoken to a man from New Zealand, we’ve called him Stephen (not his real name), about the abuse suffered by his two girls, after McCartney struck up a friendship with his eldest daughter, then 12, on Snapchat.
The girl, we’ve called her Rebecca (not her real name), believed that she was talking to another girl, and had no idea it was McCartney.
The friendship grew over a period of a few months.
Then McCartney asked Rebecca for a nude photograph, which she sent.
“He then used that to manipulate and blackmail her into sending more photos, which ended up including our youngest daughter as well as part of the blackmail,” Stephen said.
“And then, in time, through her contact list on Snapchat he added Rebecca’s cousin as well, who was older at the time, and he then tried to threaten her with getting more photos.
“Thankfully, she was mature enough and smart enough to reach out to my wife, and then we went straight to the police from there.”
Read more on this here.
‘His depravity knew no bounds’published at 16:5416:54
Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan was speaking outside Belfast Crown Court earlier this afternoon.
McCartney was “relentless and cruel”, he told reporters.
“His offending has shocked communities around the world.”
Cimarron’s father died not knowing what she’d been throughpublished at 16:4816:48
Twelve-year-old Cimarron Thomas took her own life after being abused by Alexander McCartney.
Her family didn’t know what she had been going through, she hadn’t told them as McCartney was threatening to publish her pictures online.
Her father Ben, a US Army veteran, really struggled and 18 months later he took his own life as well.
Ben died not knowing what Cimarron had been through or the abuse she had suffered.
It was only during the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s investigation that they found photos and conversations that she had with McCartney.
They were then able to reveal the truth to the family.
Who Watches the Watchers? 