 "How UK’s worst catfish predator targeted 3,500 children online, driving one to suicide")
Alexander McCartney, a man from Northern Ireland who abused over 3,000 children online, was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 20 years on Friday (October 25). The 26-year-old catfisher has been described as one of the world’s most prolific child sex abusers.
Some of his victims were as young as four-year-old girls. His blackmail even drove one of the girls to suicide in West Virginia, United States. McCartney’s victims were present across the world, including America, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia and at least 26 other countries.
Who is Alexander McCartney? How did he prey on young girls? We will explain.
Alexander McCartney, UK’s prolific ‘catfish’ killer
Alexander McCartney grew up outside Newry, Northern Ireland. He was a computer science student at Ulster University when he was charged in 2019, as per BBC.
McCartney was interested in gaming and has been described as “introverted and socially awkward”.
A source told BBC News, “He didn’t interact with people much outside of his group of friends.
He was maybe at the edges of things, but he had friends who obviously knew nothing about this."
A resident who lives near his house said McCartney “came across as a pleasant, affable, intelligent young man. There is nothing extraordinary about him.”
Alexander McCartney’s many crimes
McCartney has proved to be anything but ordinary. He posed as a teenage girl to befriend other girls on Snapchat before abusing and blackmailing them.
As per The Guardian, he is believed to be the United Kingdom’s worst catfishing offender.
Catfishing is when a person creates a false identity in order to trick another person and exploit them.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDetective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) called McCartney a “disgusting child predator” whose “offending (had been) on an industrial scale”, reported AFP.
According to the BBC report, he convinced victims into thinking they were speaking to a girl of a similar age on social media. He would then encourage them to share indecent images. Once he got the picture, he would reveal the “ catfish ” and blackmail the victim into indulging in sex acts.
Corrigan said McCartney “threatened to share these images online for the pleasure of other paedophiles and use them to further abuse and harass the already terrified and exploited children.”
In one case, he groomed, sexually abused and blackmailed a 12-year-old girl in just nine minutes, reported BBC.
Operating out of his bedroom in his family home in the rural Lissummon Road area outside Newry, he targeted girls who were gay or exploring their sexuality.
“Sitting in his childhood bedroom in Newry, he began his offending as a late teenager and built what can only be described as a paedophile enterprise,” Corrigan told reporters outside Belfast Crown Court.
“McCartney is a dangerous, relentless, cruel paedophile,” he said, as per AFP.
Justice John O’Hara, who announced the predator’s sentence, noted how in some instances McCartney forced the victims to involve their younger siblings, including those between three and five years old.
He made this demand to 12-year-old American Cimarron Thomas, who took her life in 2018. McCartney directed her to include her younger sister in sex acts he had pressured her into but Cimarron refused, reported AFP.
He threatened to share her intimate images with her father Ben Thomas, a US Army veteran.
A probe three years later revealed that Cimarron shot herself three minutes after the blackmail conversation.
During the abuse, the visibly distressed teenager told McCartney she would contact the police and take her own life. He cruelly told her he did not care and even began a countdown for when he would share her pictures, as per The Guardian report.
“He may as well have pulled the trigger himself. There’s only one place for him, that’s behind bars,” Corrigan reportedly said.
Cimarron’s body was found by her nine-year-old sister. Eighteen months later, her grieving father, Ben, also died by suicide without knowing why his daughter took her life.
ALSO READ: How France's Gisele Pelicot, who was raped by 50 men, has become a feminist hero
Charges against Alexander McCartney
Announcing McCartney’s sentence, judge John O’Hara said that he did not know any case “where the defendant has used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls, up to and including the death of a 12-year-old girl”.
“The defendant was remorseless. He ignored multiple opportunities to stop, he ignored multiple pleas for mercy. He lied and lied and then lied again," he added.
McCartney was arrested several times between 2016 and 2019 but continued preying on young girls despite bail conditions.
Justice O’Hara said even after his third arrest, the ex-computer science student kept offending in “an even more sinister, dramatic and appalling manner”.
McCartney admitted to 185 charges including manslaughter and blackmail involving 70 children, making and distributing indecent images and inciting children to engage in sexual activity including penetration.
O’Hara said McCartney’s “depravity” has caused his victims “depression, anxiety, stress, shame, embarrassment, loss of confidence, difficulty in trusting others”.
He said: “For many of them, their childhoods have been stolen. Some have attempted to commit suicide. Others report self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Whatever remorse the defendant now seeks to persuade me of, he was absolutely empty of remorse at the time.”
McCartney has been jailed for life for his crimes. According to prosecutors, he targeted 3,500 girls, some as young as 10.
It was a call from a 13-year-old girl in Scotland in 2019 that led to the eventual capture of the predator, reported BBC.
Catherine Kierans, from the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service (PPS), urged children or young people to seek help if they are being coerced by someone demanding sexual images or videos.
“This is a crime. You are not to blame. Please talk to a trusted adult,” she said.
As per AFP, Kierans asked parents and carers to talk to their children to protect them online.
“It is by bringing these issues out into the open that we can break the cycle of secrecy abusers rely on,” she said.
Kierans said McCartney’s depravity was such that it was “one of the most distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse we have ever seen in the PPS”.
She said some victims may never been identified despite exhaustive efforts by police.
With input from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
