Briton sentenced in ‘catfishing’ case in connection with the death of an American girl

A man from Northern Ireland was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison on Friday after a British court found him guilty of what was considered his worst crime. “catfishing” case in the country. Alex McCartney (26) earlier this year pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Northern Ireland court after a young American woman, who was one of thousands of alleged victims he blackmailed online, died by suicide.

McCartney pleaded guilty in court to a total of 185 charges relating to 70 child victims – including blackmailinciting a child to engage in sexual activity and creating and disseminating indecent images of children. He was also found guilty of the death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas in West Virginia, according to the British news agency Press Association.

Thomas, who lived in West Virginia with her mother, father and siblings, died by suicide in May 2018. Authorities say that during her online interactions with McCartney, he tried to force her to send graphic photos of her younger siblings.

At the time, McCartney was already under investigation and would soon be charged by British investigators when authorities discovered Cimarron’s identity and the circumstances of her death, BBC News, a CBS News affiliate, reported on Friday.

Thomas’ father, a U.S. Army veteran, died by suicide 18 months after his daughter, without knowing any circumstances of Cimarron’s death.

Jim Gamble, a former senior British police officer specializing in child safety, told BBC News it was a “shocking case”.

“The sheer scale of this and the terrible nature of the harm done to these young girls makes it some of the worst I have ever seen,” Gamble said, adding: “Don’t watch this and think it’s very rare.”

Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Northern Ireland Police Criminal Operations Division issued a statement on Friday calling McCartney “simply a disgusting child predator who posed as young girls online in order to seduce, manipulate and sexually abuse his victims as young as four years old.” , to satisfy their own sexual perversions and those of other child sex offenders on the Internet.”

According to the Press Association, McCartney’s crimes took place between 2014 and 2019, when police say he targeted around 3,500 victims, mainly via Snapchat, around the world, including in Australia, New Zealand and the US. The case against him at Belfast Crown Court involved 70 child victims, including Thomas.

There was no immediate reaction to Friday’s verdict against Snapchat’s McCartney. The social messaging app was charged in September having characteristics that make it a favorite platform for sex offenders targeting children, in: lawsuit filed by New Mexico against its parent company, Snap Inc.

An undercover state investigation found that Snapchat created “an environment in which predators can easily target children through sexual extortion schemes and other forms of sexual exploitation,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a message. release.

In a statement responding to the New Mexico case: – said Snape the app was designed “as a place to communicate with a close circle of friends, with built-in guardrails” and noted that “thoughtful design choices have been made to make it harder for strangers to find minors on our site.”

“We continue to evolve our security mechanisms and policies, from using advanced technology to detect and block specific activities, to prohibiting friendships with suspicious accounts, to cooperation with law enforcement and government agencies, and much more,” the company said, adding that it continued working with “industry, government and law enforcement to share information and develop stronger defenses.”

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