A Northern Irishman was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison on Friday after being found guilty by a British court of what it called the biggest crime. “catfish fishing” case in the country. Alex McCartney, 26, has pleaded guilty earlier this year to the charge of manslaughter in a court in Northern Ireland after a young American girl who was among the thousands of victims who allegedly blackmailed online died by death.
McCartney has admitted a total of 185 charges involving 70 child victims in court – including blackmailencouraging children to engage in sexual activity and producing and distributing indecent images of children. He was also blamed for the death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas in West Virginia, according to the British Press Association news agency.
Thomas, who lived in West Virginia with his mother, father and sister, died by suicide in May 2018. During online interactions with McCartney, authorities say he tried to force her to post graphic images involving her sister.
McCartney has been investigated at the time, and is going to face charges from British investigators when the authorities discovered the identity of Cimarron and the circumstances of his death, CBS News partner network BBC News reported on Friday.
Thomas’ father, a US Army veteran, died by suicide 18 months after his daughter, never knowing the circumstances behind Cimarron’s death.
Jim Gamble, a former senior British police officer specializing in child safety, told BBC News that this was a “shocking case.”
“The sheer scale and horrific nature of the harm inflicted on these young girls makes it one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” Gamble said, adding: “Don’t watch this and think it’s a rare occurrence.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Crime Operations Department issued a statement on Friday, calling McCartney “nothing but a despicable child predator who posed as girls online to groom, deceive and abuse his victims, as young as four . . , to satisfy their own sexual perversions and that of other online child sex offenders.”
McCartney’s crimes took place between 2014 and 2019, when he is believed by police to have targeted around 3,500 victims, mostly via Snapchat, around the world, including in Australia, New Zealand and the US, according to the Press Association. The case against him at Belfast Crown Court focused on 70 child victims, including Thomas.
There was no immediate response to Friday’s verdict against McCartney from Snapchat. Social messaging apps are accused in September has features that make the platform attractive to sex offenders who target children, according to a lawsuit filed by New Mexico against its parent company, Snap Inc.
An undercover investigation by the state found Snapchat had created “an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a press release.
In a statement responding to the New Mexico case, Snap said the app was designed “as a place to communicate with close friends, with built-in security fences,” and said there were “intentional design choices to make it difficult for strangers to find a minor in our service.”
“We continue to develop our safety mechanisms and policies, from using advanced technology to detect and block certain activities, to ban friends from suspicious accounts, to work with law enforcement and government agencies, etc.,” the company said, adding that . continues to work with “industry, government, and law enforcement to exchange information and more robust defense concepts.”