It is almost impossible to comprehend the horrific scale of the sadistic offences committed by Alexander McCartney, the Newry man whose vile and twisted crimes led to the death by suicide of a 12-year-old girl in the United States and the abuse of many others.
The 26-year-old ‘catfished’ his victims, a term linked to the digital world and the creation of a fake online persona designed to lure someone else into a relationship in order to deceive or blackmail them. McCartney’s methods may have been modern but his crimes were the ancient ones of sexual abuse, paedophilia, blackmail and degradation.
From his own childhood bedroom, McCartney operated on an industrial level, stalking victims in 30 countries. He is believed to have targeted around 3,500 girls, many of them under 13 years old. He would befriend them online, often through the Snapchat social media app, and, having groomed them and won their trust, persuade them to send him intimate photographs. He would then use the threat of publishing these images to blackmail his victims into performing sex acts via a webcam or mobile phone.
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Among his victims was Cimarron Thomas, a 12-year-old girl from West Virginia in the United States. She had fallen into one of McCartney’s online traps in 2018. Rather than comply with his depraved demand that she should make her younger sister perform sex acts, she took her own life. Compounding the tragedy, her father died by suicide 18 months later.
The PSNI and the Public Prosecution Service deserve enormous credit for the lengthy, complex and legally challenging international investigation which ended yesterday at Belfast Crown Court where McCartney was sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years in prison.
He had admitted 185 charges involving 70 child victims, including pleading guilty to manslaughter related to young Cimarron Thomas’s death.
McCartney’s methods may have been modern but his crimes were the ancient ones of sexual abuse, paedophilia, blackmail and degradation
After the sentencing, Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan lamented the devastation that McCartney has caused and the childhoods he has stolen.
He also offered a sobering warning: “His offending is devastating and unfortunately we are seeing more of this type of online predatory behaviour from younger offenders than ever before.”
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McCartney may have been an especially prolific and depraved offender but it is a grim reality that there are others like him lurking in the digital space in which children today so easily move, live and feel comfortable in.
While social media companies have a heavy responsibility to make their apps safer, governments need to do more to regulate their activities. Parents and schools can also play an important role by reminding children how to stay safe online and to encourage them to share any concerns, however slight.
