A Co Armagh man whose online catfishing caused the death of a 12-year-old girl in the United States has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years.
As he sentenced Alexander McCartney (26) , from Lissummon Road in Newry, for a total of 185 charges including manslaughter, Mr Justice O’Hara said “he used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls.”
The PSNI has said it believes there may be as many as 3,500 victims across the world.
The offences admitted by McCartney included the manslaughter of 12-year old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia in the US who took her own life in May 2018 after she was targeted on Snapchat. Her father Ben Thomas, a US army veteran, took his own life 18 months later.
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 58 charges of blackmail and multiple offences of possessing indecent images of children in a period of offending which spanned from 2013 to 2019.
Branding McCartney’s campaign of offending as “sexploitation” and involving “sadism and depravity”, the senior judge said the life sentence - which is normally reserved for murder cases - was necessary.
Mr Justice O’Hara rejected McCartney’s claims that he himself had been the victim of catfishing as a teenager and said that as well as continuing to offend whilst on bail, he had “lied and lied and lied again” and had subjected young girls to extreme “humiliation and degradation.”
The judge also noted that in the period when McCartney’s home was searched for the time in January 2016 to his arrest in July 2019, he “kept going” and his offending “got worse and worse.”
He said: “I find it hard to think of a sexual deviant who poses more risk than this defendant.”
Taking into account the time that McCartney has already spent on remand, he will not be considered eligible for release until 2039.
McCartney’s victims spanned the globe and he used social media to exploit young girls aged between 10 and 16.
Primarily using Snapchat as well as Instagram and Kik, he engaged in ‘catfishing’ - whereby he created fake online profiles pretending to be young teenage girls - to deceive his victims into sending sexual images of themselves.
Once they had sent the images, McCartney revealed his true identity and threatened that if they did not perform certain sexual acts, he would send the images he obtained of them to their friends and family.
In some cases, he made his victims involve younger siblings and on occasions he forced girls to involve pets.
McCartney targeted young girls who were either gay or exploring their sexuality.
Posing as a young girl himself, McCartney preyed on their insecurities, which Mr Justice O’Hara said was “particularly calculating and sinister.”
He told one victim he knew where she lived and if she didn’t do what he said, he would send people to her house to rape her.
Other girls begged him to stop, with two harming themselves prior to May 2018 when Cimarron Thomas took her own life.
Mr Justice O’Hara said that despite McCartney expressing shame and remorse, he felt the defendant was “devoid of normal human empathy.”
In addition to the minimum 20 year jail term, McCartney will serve, he was also made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
[ Background: Alexander McCartney preyed from age 16 on young girls onlineOpens in new window ]
Outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said McCartney’s offending was on an “industrial scale”.
“I reflect on the judge’s comments, McCartney is a dangerous, relentless, cruel paedophile,” he said. “There was nothing that was going to stop him, apart from putting him in jail.”
He added: “We believe that the number of victims is approximately 3,500. We have identified as many as we possibly could. Obviously, to charge and identify all those offences would be impractical, so a sample of cases were brought forward.”
The officer said McCartney had caused devastation and stolen childhoods. “The scale of his offending, it was just on an industrial scale,” he said.
“He would offend right throughout the night. With Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies, we have strived to identify as many children as possible, but unfortunately, with the passage of time, many young people deleted their accounts to stop the offending, and many young people have moved on. But we cannot underestimate the devastation that he has caused and the childhoods he has stolen.”
Acting head of the Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service Serious Crime Unit Catherine Kierans said Alexander McCartney’s “depravity” was one of the “most distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse” the organisation had ever dealt with.
“The damage McCartney caused to so many young lives is immeasurable,” she said.
“All McCartney’s victims were young, innocent children. Some of the estimated 3,500 girls he targeted, who were as young as 10, were already struggling with identity and body image issues and had reached out for help on social media.
“He sought to exploit that vulnerability in the most shocking ways. Some children pleaded for him to stop the abuse but he callously continued.”
[ Five ways to help keep your child safe onlineOpens in new window ]
“McCartney had victims in countries across the world. Given the scale and complexity of his offending, the PPS worked closely with the Police Service of Northern Ireland from early in their investigation to advise on lines of enquiry and the evidence needed to build the most effective case.
“Tragically, one of his young victims, who was just 12, had taken her own life during an online chat in which he was threatening her and forcing her to engage in sexual activity. The two had never met in person. Working closely with police, the prosecution team was able to establish to the criminal standard that McCartney’s actions had caused the girl’s death and he had a case to answer for manslaughter.
“This new application of the law was rightly tested in court including challenge from the defence. However, after legal argument, the trial judge agreed with the PPS and McCartney eventually pleaded guilty to killing the girl. We believe this to be the first time an abuser anywhere in the world has been held accountable for manslaughter where the victim and perpetrator have never met in person.”
