Catfish killer Alexander McCartney jailed for minimum of 20 years

A man from Northern Ireland has been given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years in jail for the extreme online sexual abuse of children and the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl, who was one of his victims.

Alexander McCartney from County Armagh admitted 185 charges - including more than 50 blackmail offences.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter after a 12-year-old girl from the United States took her own life while he was abusing her.

The charges involved children aged 10-16 from across the world between 2013 and 2019.

On Friday, Mr Justice O'Hara said McCartney would not be considered for release before 2039 - this takes into account the fact he has been in custody since 2019, having already served five years.

Warning: Distressing details of extreme child abuse and strong language are mentioned in the section below.

Alexander McCartney is one of the world's most prolific online child abusers and his litany of crimes has been described as "the UK's largest catfishing case".

Catfishing involves the use of a false identity online to befriend and exploit victims.

From behind a computer screen at his home in Northern Ireland, he brought fear and devastation to the lives of thousands of children across the world.

He approached the vast majority of his victims on Snapchat, although on a small number of occasions he used other social media sites including Instagram and Kik.

Police believe as many as 3,500 children were targeted by McCartney, on his 64 devices. He pretended to be a young girl to lure his victims into sending intimate photos.

Sometimes he used pictures he had obtained from other young girls and pretended to be them when speaking to new victims.

Once he had the photos he would blackmail them, not for money, but for more extreme photographs. If they did not send them he said he would expose them to their friends and family.

He forced the children to involve their younger siblings in the abuse, which also included family pets and objects.

A spokesperson for Snapchat said: “The sexual exploitation of any person is horrific and illegal and our hearts go out to the victims in this case.

“If we discover this activity, or it is reported to us, we remove it, lock the violating account and report it to the authorities.

“We have extra protections for teens to make it difficult for them to be contacted by strangers and we have expanded in-app notifications to ensure teens are in touch with people they trust.

“Through our in-app Family Centre parents can also see who their teens are talking to, and who their friends are.”

In many cases terrified children begged him to stop and begged that their pictures would not be put on the internet.

Some said they would kill or harm themselves.

One victim sent a picture with a cut on her arm. McCartney told them that he "didn’t give a shit".

Another girl said: “I cant stop shaking, I think I’m going to die.”

McCartney replied: “I don’t care.”

The police have said on occasions he shared the images with other paedophiles.

He kept records of the children he had abused and screenshotted their Snapchat location pins so he knew where they were based.

He was so relentless in his abuse that he had a template of messages that he would copy and paste to the children.

The court heard the harm McCartney caused was "unquantifiable" and he "degraded and humiliated" victims for his own sexual gratification.

Many of his child victims have never been identified, but all their lives have been changed forever.

Although investigators believe as many as 3,500 children were targeted; this case focussed on 70 of them in order to provide a manageable caseload for the court.

During the investigation, prosecutors discovered one case that had led to tragic consequences.

In 2018, he messaged 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas in West Virginia, USA. After complimenting her and getting a picture, he began his campaign of abuse.

He demanded more pictures of her and threatened to put her pictures online and expose her if she did not do what he said.

Scared, she did not tell anyone what was happening to her.

McCartney kept pursuing her and coming back for more photos and told her she had to include her little sister.

She refused to do so and said she would kill herself. He put up a countdown clock.

Cimarron shot herself in the head with her family's legally held firearm, while she was still online with McCartney.

Her younger sister found her.

Tragically, 18 months later, Cimarron's father Ben took his own life. When he died he did not know the reason why Cimarron had taken hers.

McCartney pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cimarron Thomas earlier this year.