Catfish child abuser first to be sentenced in UK for manslaughter of victim in a foreign jurisdiction

*Warning descriptions of child abuse and suicide below*

A prolific paedophile who caused a 12-year-old girl to take her own life has been jailed for life after sexually abusing nearly 200 children.

Alexander McCartney, 26, from Newry, Northern Ireland, posed online as a teenage girl to groom and then blackmail children around the world as young as four-years-old.

It is thought there could be more than 3,500 victims in total with the majority too afraid to come forward.

McCartney carried out all the offences online from his childhood bedroom in Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland were first alerted to McCartney’s activities in 2019, following reports of an adult using the alias of a 13-year-old girl to groom young girls online in Scotland.

Detectives seized 64 of McCartney’s devices and discovered thousands of videos and photos of underage girls performing sexual acts online whilst being extorted by him.

Further investigation uncovered evidence of McCartney’s offending in the UK, America, New Zealand and at least 28 other countries, using different devices to operate across multiple time zones.

He employed the same tactics every time, posing as teenage girl to groom victims into believing they were talking to someone their age. He used fake profiles across different social media platforms including Snapchat, often taking on the identity of previous girls he had abused and using the images he had taken from them to catfish other victims.

McCartney would urge girls to engage in sexual activity online or send him indecent images of themselves. He would then threaten to share the images online with other pedophiles and use them to further exploit and abuse the children.

McCartney was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday 25th October to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years for 185 charges of child sexual abuse crimes and blackmail and one count of manslaughter.

McCartney became the first person in the UK to be sentenced for manslaughter when the victim resided in a foreign jurisdiction. Cimarron Thomas, 12, from West Virginia shot herself with a handgun in 2018 during online contact with McCartney while he tried to force her to involve her younger sibling in online abuse. When she refused, he threatened to send sexual images he had coerced from her to her contacts.

Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, Naomi Long has called for any other people abused by McCartney to come forward. Police estimate McCartney’s actions have affected close to 3,500 victims and their families. Many of these children were too afraid to come forward or speak to their parents due to the nature of his threats and were only identified through the evidence detectives located on McCartney’s devices.

A father of two of McCartney’s victims from New Zealand aged 10 and 12, has spoken out about the impact his family stating: “We hope the publicity around cases like this helps others come forward, no matter how difficult it is, to flush out these predators and protect both those at risk, and those who have already been abused.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has appealed to all parents/guardians of young people to be vigilant and check in on who they may be talking to online. They have published advice on their website here.

Parents/guardians and wider local communities should report any activity, online or physical, towards a child that they find concerning. Similarly, if you have concerns or suspicions that an adult you know or live with may be engaging in this type of illegal activity report to police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.

No child or their family should have to live with the impact of online grooming and image based sexual abuse and lives shouldn’t be defined by experiencing this unimaginable trauma.

At Bolt Burdon Kemp, we are dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual abuse. We provide trauma-informed representation and work to hold individuals and institutions accountable. If you or a someone close to you have been affected by online or image based sexual abuse, you can contact our Abuse Team for free, confidential advice to help you understand your legal options.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.