A 26-year-old “online predator”, who notably caused the suicide of one of his 70 minor victims, a 12-year-old American girl, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Belfast on Friday.
Alexander McCartney, who admitted 185 charges against him, is “the first person in the United Kingdom to be convicted of murder while his victim resided in a foreign jurisdiction,” Northern Ireland police chief Eamonn told Corrigan, denouncing to a “disgusting child.” predator”.
Blackmail
This former computer science student posed as a teenager to contact girls from all over the world via Snapchat, before blackmailing them.
Cimarron Thomas, 12, from West Virginia, United States, committed suicide in May 2018 to avoid having to comply with the demands of Alexander McCartney, who ordered him to involve his younger sister in sexual acts. 18 months later, his father Ben Thomas also committed suicide.
The head of the Northern Irish police denounced a “disgusting child predator” who committed crimes on an “industrial scale”, with victims in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Alexander McCartney had pleaded guilty to murder and dozens of other crimes. His life sentence is accompanied by a 20-year security sentence.
He admitted blackmailing, making and distributing “indecent images” and inciting children to perform sexual acts, from the bedroom of his family home in Newry, Northern Ireland.
Source: BFM TV