Alexander McCartney, a Northern Ireland man who abused more than 3,000 children online, was jailed for life on Friday (25 October) with a minimum sentence of 20 years. The 26-year-old angler has been described as one of the most prolific child sex abusers in the world.

Some of his victims were as young as four-year-old girls. His blackmail even led one of the girls to commit suicide in West Virginia, United States. McCartney’s victims were present all over the world, including America, New Zealand, Great Britain, Australia and at least 26 other countries.

Who is Alexander McCartney? How to prey on young girls? We will explain.

Alexander McCartney, Britain’s prolific “sleep” killer

Alexander McCartney grew up outside Newry, Northern Ireland. He was a computer science student at Ulster University when he was charged in 2019, according to BBC.

McCartney was interested in games and was described as “introverted and socially awkward”.

A source said BBC News“He didn’t interact much with people outside of his group of friends.
Maybe he was on the edge of things, but he had friends who obviously didn’t know anything about it.”

A resident who lives near his home said McCartney “seemed like a pleasant, kind and intelligent young man. There is nothing extraordinary about him.”

The Many Crimes of Alexander McCartney

McCartney proved to be anything but ordinary. He posed as a teenager to befriend other girls on Snapchat before abusing and blackmailing them.

Conformable The Guardianbelieved to be the UK’s worst catfishing offender.
Phishing is when a person creates a false identity to trick another person and exploit them.

Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) called McCartney a “disgusting child predator” whose “crime (was) on an industrial scale”, he reported. AFP.

right BBC report, he tricked victims into thinking they were talking to a girl of the same age on social media. He then encouraged them to share indecent images. Once he had the picture, he would reveal ”
sleep” and blackmails the victim to engage in sexual acts.

Corrigan said McCartney “threatened to share these images online for the enjoyment of other pedophiles and to use them to continue the abuse and harassment of already terrified and exploited children”.

In one case, he groomed, sexually abused and blackmailed a 12-year-old girl in just nine minutes, it reported BBC.

Working from his bedroom in his family home on the rural Lissummon Road outside Newry, he targeted girls who were gay or exploring their sexuality.

“Sitting in his childhood bedroom in Newry, he began offending as a teenager and built what can only be described as a pedophile enterprise,” Corrigan told reporters outside Belfast Crown Court.

“McCartney is a dangerous, relentless and cruel pedophile,” he said, according to the report AFP.

Judge John O’Hara, who announced the predator’s sentence, noted how in some cases McCartney forced the victims to involve their younger siblings, including those aged between three and five.

He made that request to 12-year-old American Cimarron Thomas, who took her own life in 2018. McCartney directed him to include his younger sister in the sexual acts he had pressured her into, but Cimarron refused, he reported. AFP.

He threatened to share her intimate images with her father, Ben Thomas, a US Army veteran.
An investigation three years later revealed that Cimarron shot himself three minutes after the blackmail conversation.

During the abuse, the visibly distraught teenager told McCartney she was going to contact the police and take her own life. He cruelly told her he didn’t care and even started a countdown to when he would share her pictures, according to The Guardian report.

“He may have pulled the trigger himself. There’s only one place for him, and that’s behind bars,” Corrigan said.

Cimarron’s body was found by her nine-year-old sister. Eighteen months later, her grieving father, Ben, also committed suicide, not knowing why his daughter had taken her own life.

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Allegations against Alexander McCartney

Announcing McCartney’s sentence, Judge John O’Hara said he knew of no case “where the defendant used social media on an industrial scale to cause such terrible and catastrophic harm to young girls, up to and including the death of a 12-year-old years. one-year-old girl”.

“The defendant was remorseless. He ignored multiple opportunities to stop, 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 to blast young girls despite his bail conditions.

Judge O’Hara said even after his third arrest, the former computer science student continued to offend in an “even more sinister, dramatic and appalling manner”.

McCartney admitted 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” had caused his victims “depression, anxiety, stress, shame, embarrassment, loss of confidence, difficulty trusting others”.

He said: “For many of them, their childhood has been stolen. Some tried to kill themselves. Others report self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Whatever remorse the defendant now tries to convince me of, he was absolutely remorseless at the time.”

McCartney was jailed for life for his crimes. According to prosecutors, he targeted 3,500 girls, some as young as 10 years old.

It was a call from a 13-year-old girl in Scotland in 2019 that led to the predator’s eventual capture, he reported. BBC.

Catherine Kierans, from the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS), urged children or young people to seek help if they are coerced by someone asking for sexual images or videos.

“This is a crime. It’s not your fault. Please talk to a trusted adult,” she said.

Conformable AFPKierans urged parents and carers to talk to their children to keep them safe online.
“By exposing these issues we can break the cycle that abusers of secrets rely on,” she said.

Kierans said McCartney’s depravity was such that it was “one of the most painful and prolific cases of child sexual abuse we have ever seen in the PPS”.

She said some victims were never identified despite exhaustive police efforts.

With contributions from agencies