Prolific catfish abuser who drove girl to suicide jailed for at least 20 years

[IwantToRetire]

(Some information in the article is very distressing and disturbing and it maybe that some on FWR wont want to read the details. But it does seem that police in NI, even though a small force, put a huge amount of effort in tracking this man down.)

An online predator who drove one of his catfish victims in the US to take her own life has today been jailed for at least 20 years.

Alexander McCartney, 26, who admitted 185 charges involving 70 children, was given a life sentence with a minimum term by Mr Justice O’Hara at Belfast Crown Court on Friday.

McCartney, who posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females on Snapchat before blackmailing them, is believed to be the UK’s most prolific catfish offender with victims identified across the world.

Twelve-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia in the US took her own life in May 2018 rather than comply with McCartney’s demands for her to involve her younger sister in sex acts.

Article continues at https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/alexander-mccartney-sentenced-prolific-catfish-30227880

I've taken the man's name out of the thread title and deleted the newspaper image of him.

He should have been hanged the horrible example of a human

Posted in memory of Cimarron Thomas and all the other young people this grotesque male persecuted and abused.

Cimarron Thomas was 12 years old in 2018 when she used her father's handgun to kill herself.

From West Virginia, USA, she played the violin, she loved elephants and chatting with her friends on Snapchat, and she was looking forward to her 13th birthday.

But she was being sexually abused and blackmailed online by a student from Northern Ireland, described as the UK's most prolific catfisher.

In a tragic turn of events, Cimarron’s father, Ben, a US army veteran, took his own life 18 months later. He did not know about his daughter's abuse or why she took her own life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2yj24xge1o

Although investigators believe as many as 3,500 children were targeted; this case focused on 70 of them in order to provide a manageable caseload for the court.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx245q4nyyet?page=2

It’s heartbreaking, that poor wee girl, her poor dad , utterly devastated. I hope that bastard never has a safe, peaceful day in his life from now on.

I saw an article, live reporting, I've posted a link on the General Conversations thread. Seeing I was reminded of that stupid Scottish woman saying a predator would never pretend. The children initially thought they were talking to another young girl, because he pretended that that's what he was.

There's a quote from the article

Prosecutors said he was offending so frequently that it was hard to know how he had time to do anything else.

This is how driven these monsters are. Putting on a bit of lippy would be a piece of piss in comparison.

I heard this on PM this evening. He's only 26 now so in 2018 when he targeted that poor little girl he was only 20. How does he get to be so depraved and prolific at such a young age?

His poor victims. A reminder that children shouldn't be on social media as the SM companies don't give a shit.

Oh and I too thought of that ridiculous Scottish woman who said men wouldn't pretend to be something to prey on women and girls (gist). Shona Robison?

(warning graphic content)

He preyed on young girls online from when he was 16 years old.
Operating from the bedroom of his rural family home on the Lissummon Road outside Newry, McCartney posed as a teenage girl on the social media platform Snapchat. Instagram and other messaging sites were also used.

Some of the detail outlined during a two-hour court hearing last Thursday – when he pleaded guilty to all charges spanning a six-year period beginning in 2013 – was too graphic and disturbing to be reported by media.

“We’re into new territory here,” Mr Justice John O’Hara told the court.
Befriending vulnerable children “who were either gay or exploring their sexuality with other girls”, he persuaded them to send sexual images, before revealing himself and blackmailing them to send more explicit material for his own sexual gratification.

His youngest victim was just 10 years old.

Bestiality images – one girl was forced to engage in sexual activity with her pet dog – and demanding victims’ siblings to perform sex acts were among the footage uncovered in the international criminal investigation. McCartney insisted the siblings always had to be “younger”.

“It’s as awful a case as I have seen in regards to the depth of the depravity of the offending,” says Jim Gamble, a former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

“We knew initially there were Category A, B and C images; when people hear that, very often they don’t understand what that means.
“Category A imagery is penetrative sexual activity with a child and includes bestiality.

“The bottom line is: you’re looking at the worst type of offences and the scars won’t just be physical, they’ll be mental. For those victims who have survived this, it’s going to take years for them to come to terms to be able to even cope with the trauma that will follow.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2024/10/25/alexander-mccartney-preyed-from-age-16-on-young-girls-online/

NB Befriending vulnerable children “who were either gay or exploring their sexuality with other girls”

Unfortunately NI is riddled with abusers so I fully expect more to come to light in due course

when a society is split and in conflict there is a known effect on the levels of interpersonal violence and abuse (at least you aren’t being knee-capped/blown up)

add into that the use of intelligence on all sides as forms of leverage (Kincora etc)

and a ‘protect your own side’ (don’t be a grass or give the other side dirt on us)

and mistrust on all sides about whether abuse will be taken seriously or dismissed by authorities (don’t listen to her, you know her da is x, can’t investigate him his da is y)

and the all pervasive ‘look of the thing’ aka reputations being apparently more impt than anything else - even children

so many abusers in NI have been free to abuse for so many years and are still currently free and abusing

each one may have many many victims and if even one of those victims becomes an abuser themselves then the number of victims multiplies endlessly through the years and generations

this 1 abused 3,500 - just think of the scale of that over 50+years - when in person and located in the small province itself

all the goings on in scottish greens/snp, the met etc will seem paltry compared to the activities of our political parties, police and paramilitaries

it’s an absolute cesspit and god knows how it will be sorted out - thank god this one has been stopped - roll on stopping all the others including those in positions of power and authority

Disgusting man. He will get his due deserts in jail.

@DaisysChains

You have the measure of it.

There are a couple of sentences in the body of text copied and pasted that I would really rather not have read. Obviously I’d prefer none of this ever happened but some of the detail I would have preferred to have hidden in a link as I wouldn’t have chosen to read it. I do want to be able to read all posts on FWR though.

I hope the children injured by this man learn about Gisele in France and are able to put the shame where it belongs.

I assume he isn't in the general prison population.

He has in fact been in custody for 5 years its taken them so long to compile the evidence working with police forces in other countries (Met Police are claiming they caught him?!)

Which meant his crimes took place between the ages of 16 - 21.

This is such a distuburing illustration of how the internet first thought to be such a positive development, has been colonised by immature incels, who hate women, and have grown up of a diet of violent pornography.

Enabled by really strange (despite being thought to be clever) men like Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

The virtual world illustrates what happens when men think they are in a space where social norms dont matter.

If you are referring to what I copied I did head it "graphic content" so that anyone who had concerns could skip the post.

That extra detail is so disturbing, I feel so sorry for his victims to have been so frightened and forced to do things like that. I'm really disgusted by this case - I can't even go onto the BBC page as I don't want to see his repulsive face. Hope he kills himself in prison.

Yes, I know - I just thought that was more a warning for a following link. My fault. But bugger it.

And her 9 year old sister who found her and phoned 911 for help.

Terrible to think that children didn't talk to their parents because they didn't want to upset them.

And parents finding out what had happened to their children, too late.

If only all these stupid men who are supposed to be so technologically clever, would find a way to just block content like this. It just shows what the priorities are in a male dominated world. Gratifying male whims.

Thank you for starting a thread. I've been so distressed seeing the news today I don't really have words.

@DaisysChains , what you say about NI in general is incredibly disturbing.

The calculated cruelty of this man makes me question whether it is really a mark of civilised society to allow such sadists to live. At the very least he should never be released from prison. That poor child was put in a position where she felt her only options were sexually abusing her own little sister or killing herself.

And, of course, this case again proves that women and girls do need to know if someone is really female or just pretending to be.

Bet the evil fucker transes himself in prison.

NI is beautiful and so many people are really wonderful

but ignoring the abuses - that’s a manmade cesspit and we need to clean it up

They had to choose 70 cases from 3500.

And most parents are still handing over smart phones to their children with no oversight.

Twelve-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia in the US took her own life in May 2018 rather than comply with McCartney’s demands for her to involve her younger sister in sex acts.

Brave brave girl. Such a terrible loss to her family and the world.

We think we can protect our girls but the reality is that he targeted so so many that some will be sucked in. We need better protections. Tech is moving so fast it's impossible to keep up.

IwantToRetire If only all these stupid men who are supposed to be so technologically clever, would find a way to just block content like this.

If only people who have been told for decades that the internet is not a safe place for unsupervised minors would think twice about giving 24/7 access to the sleaziest corners of the world wide web to their 12-year-old children - in fact his youngest victim was 10 years old - tragedies like this wouldn't happen.

Mobile phones are not suitable for children. This has been the message since mobile phones were invented, and yet time and time again we read about tragedies like this that could and should have been avoided.

It's heart-breaking to think that even after reading about this poor child, people will hand a mobile phone to their 12 year old 'because they all have them', or something.. How many deaths will it take?

According to one of the reports on RTÉ earlier the youngest child he persuaded an older child to involve was 3.

Eventually they'll have to license phones, and limit under 18 year olds to phones that do voice and text only, no images. It will still get breached all the time, but monsters like A C will find it a tiny bit harder.

I saw this article in the Telegraph but wasn't sure where to post it

https://archive.ph/oz3j9 bypass the paywall

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/23/how-roblox-became-parents-worst-nightmare/

I very much doubt it's just that game. Auto-completing 'depression' ffs!

Eta

Do any of the articles say how he initially contacted the children?