Depraved catfish killer Alexander McCartney targeted 3,500 young girls worldwide over six years, it emerged as he was sentenced to life with a minimum prison term of 20 years for blackmail and manslaughter.
The 26-year-old used social media on an industrial scale to inflict “catastrophic” damage on young girls, including one vulnerable 12-year-old who took her own life,
McCartney, believed to be the first abuser in the world convicted of manslaughter where the killer and the victim never met, was described by the sentencing judge as a “remorseless...sexual deviant”.
Listen: Harrowing 911 call from nine-year-old sister of Alexander McCartney’s ‘catfish’ victim
The computer science student from Newry baited 12-year-old West Virginia, US, child Cimarron Thomas into suicide, cruelly starting a countdown after she told him she would kill herself. Eighteen months later, her grieving father, US Army veteran Ben, also took his own life.
He was convicted on 185 charges of grooming and blackmailing at least 70 victims, luring the children into sharing images, then using those to force them into doing what he wanted. He forced some to send images of younger siblings, including one as young as four, and other family members.
Other charges admitted by McCartney included multiple offences of causing a child to engage in a sex act, causing a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual communication with a child.
He also pleaded guilty to over 58 charges of blackmail and multiple offences of possessing indecent images of children in a period of offending which spanned from which spanned from 2013 to 2019.
But he targeted an estimated 3,500, the Public Prosecution Service said, most aged between 10 and 16, many struggling with their sexual identity or body image and had reached out for help on social media. McCartney often posed first as a girl.
‘I’m scared’: Messages illustrate fear of Alexander McCartney victims
One chilling message, after he managed to secure images, read: “As long as you obey and do as I say then nothing happens...you’re are going to be my little toy for the night.”
“The defendant was remorseless. He ignored multiple opportunities to stop. He ignored multiple pleas for mercy,” Mr Justice John O’Hara said. “In my judgment, it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant.”
He described McCartney’s campaign of offending as “sexploitation” and involving “sadism and depravity”, Between when his home was first searched in 2016 and arrest in July 2019, he “kept going” and his offending “got worse and worse”.
Victims across the globe, from New Zealand to the United States, were lured in, often over Snapchat. In the case of Cimarron, investigators only identified her as a victim in 2021, three years after she took her own life using a firearm.
Cimarron’s grandparents, Peggy and Dale Thomas, in a victim impact statement, said: “Our lives will never be the same again. We didn’t get to see her graduate, walk down the aisle, or have children.”
They added: “We have been robbed, and our lives have been changed forever.”
A New Zealand father described how McCartney “manipulated and blackmailed her into sending more pictures which included my younger daughter, photos of her ended up being sent as well”. He also ensnared their cousin,
“Alexander McCartney committed some horrific and disturbing crimes and deserves every minute he serves in prison,” said Derek W. Gordon. of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington D.C.
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Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan, who led the investigation, said: “It was a team effort to get to sentencing today.
“It should not be underestimated how difficult this job is, to watch and grade child abuse imagery to bring someone like McCartney to justice and locate and safeguard his victims is no easy feat.
“All of us working on this case have families at home and we wanted to protect these children as if they were our own.
“His offending is devastating and unfortunately we are seeing more of this type of online predatory behaviour from younger offenders than ever before.”
Justice Minister Naomi Long said the “level of depravity, deviousness and utter disregard Alexander McCartney demonstrated for his young victims was horrifying”.
“McCartney committed his vile crimes behind a cloak of online anonymity, but through a comprehensive and robust operation across the criminal justice system he has been exposed as the vile and prolific child sexual predator that he truly is,” Ms Long said.
“Today my thoughts are with the family and friends of Cimarron Thomas. She, and McCartney’s other victims, deserved never to be exposed to his depravity, cruelty and abuse.”