A notorious offender known for his “catfishing” activities, whose malicious global online blackmail campaign targeted thousands of young people and ultimately led to the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in the United States, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday.
How child predator used Snapchat to blackmail
Alexander McCartney, 26, masqueraded as a teenage girl to establish connections with young females worldwide on the social media platform Snapchat. He coerced them into sending explicit images and subsequently threatened to release these images publicly.
He confessed to 185 charges involving 70 minors and was informed that he would serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.
“Operating from his childhood bedroom in Newry, Northern Ireland, he commenced his criminal activities as a late teenager and developed what can only be characterised as a paedophile enterprise,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
“McCartney is a dangerous, relentless, and cruel paedophile,” he further asserted.
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A 12-year victim died by suicide, father also took his life
A resident of West Virginia took her life in May 2018 after McCartney pressured her to involve her younger sister in sexual acts that he had coerced her into.
Eighteen months later, her grieving father also died by suicide.
The court was informed that other victims were located in the United States, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
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‘McCartney had shown no remorse for his actions’
In delivering the sentence, Judge John O’Hara remarked that he was unaware of any other case where an offender had utilised social media to “inflict such terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls, culminating in the death of a 12-year-old girl.”
“It is genuinely challenging to conceive of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant,” he added.
O’Hara said that McCartney had shown “no remorse” for his actions, disregarding “numerous pleas for mercy.”
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Even after his third arrest, he continued to offend in “an even more sinister, dramatic, and appalling manner,” the judge stated.
(Inputs from AFP)
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