LANCAO

Online predator Alexander McCartney who drove one of his catfish victims to take her own life, has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court after admitting 185 charges involving 70 children and sat with his head bowed down in the dock.

He posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females on Snapchat before blackmailing them.

McCartney, originally from Newry, Northern Ireland, used his technical knowledge as a computer science student to carry out his crimes from his childhood bedroom.

McCartney is believed to be the UK’s most prolific catfish offender with victims identified across the world.

Other victims were identified in countries like Australia, New Zealand and the US.

Cimarron Thomas, 12, from West Virginia, took her own life in May 2018 rather than comply with his demands for her to involve her younger sister in sex acts.

She was first contacted by McCartney four days before her death and he had blackmailed her into sending images and at one point told him: ‘I don’t like this.’

When she told him she would tell police he replied: ‘I don’t care.’

He also asked for pictures of her nine-year-old sister, to which she responded: ‘Please not her.’

He then started a 30 second countdown before he threatened to post her pictures online.

McCartney said: ‘I am posting, bye. Ben Thomas first (Cimarron’s father). He should see the pix first.’

This is when Cimarron responded: ‘No, I’ll obey.’

The conversation then stopped and her younger sister found her body three minutes later.

She picked up her phone and hit the panic button, triggering a 911 call. Cimarron died later that night in hospital.

Ben Thomas, Cimarron’s father, took his own life 18 months later.

Cimarron’s grandparents said in a victim impact statement: ‘We all have been devastated by our granddaughter’s passing.

‘We know that nothing that we do or say will bring her back.

‘But if we can help another family to not have to go through what we did, something good could come out of her death.

‘Parents, please keep the doors of communication open concerning the evil of some people online.’

Cimarron’s paternal grandfather, Dale Thomas, added: ‘Our lives will never be the same again.

‘It has robbed us of many, many years with Cimarron and with Ben and the lives we had planned with them.

‘We didn’t get to see Cimarron graduate from school or attend a prom.

‘We will never get to see Ben walk her down the aisle on her wedding day or to meet her children.

‘We will never get to have the family holidays that we planned just a few days before Cimarron’s death.

‘We have been robbed of these memories and our lives have been changed forever.’

McCartney previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter relating to Cimarron’s death and admitted 59 counts of blackmail, dozens of charges related to making and distributing indecent photographs and scores of charges of inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

Mr Justice O’Hara told the court that it was difficult to think of a ‘sexual deviant’ who posed a greater risk than McCartney.

He did not accept a claim that McCartney started offending after becoming a victim of catfishing himself as a young teenager.

He said: ‘To my knowledge there has not been a case such as the present where a 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.

‘In my judgment it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant.’

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