Northern Irish man who posed as a girl to blackmail teenagers online has been sentenced to 20 years in prison

A 26-year-old man from Northern Ireland, who targeted thousands of girls in a wide-ranging online pedophilia case by pretending to be a teenage girl online and was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of a 12-year-old girl, was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in the United States and Britain on Friday.

Alexander McCartney pleaded guilty to 185 charges of child sexual abuse and blackmail. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in March.

“This was one of the most depraved, distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse we have ever seen in the prosecution,” said Catherine Kierans, acting head of the Northern Ireland Prosecution Service’s Serious Crime Unit. Press conference on Friday.

Posing as a teenage girl, McCartney lulled his victims into a false sense of security. He urged them to send explicit photos or engage in sexual activity via a webcam or mobile phone and then blackmailed them, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Police said McCartney then spread the images and videos online.

Detective Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan said in a statement that McCartney groomed, manipulated and sexually abused his young victims. McCartney began tricking girls online in his late teens from his childhood bedroom in Newry, Northern Ireland.

Police in Northern Ireland estimate that McCartney had 3,500 victims in many countries.

“He set up what can only be described as a pedophilia enterprise. “He had a number of devices and he was working in different time zones,” Corrigan said.

In 2018, McCartney’s operation led to the death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia. According to Northern Ireland police, Cimarron shot himself during online contact with McCartney; “the catalyst for this was Cimarron forcing him to include his little brother.”

On Friday, McCartney became the first person in the UK to be convicted of manslaughter of a foreign victim.

The father of two teenage girls who fell victim to McCartney in New Zealand told Britain’s PA news agency that he befriended McCartney’s eldest daughter on the social media platform Snapchat in 2017. There was McCartney posing nude.

“Once he had that, he had the power and it was a situation where he had to play by the rules,” the father, identified only as Bob, told the news agency. He then added that McCartney also asked for photos of the girl’s younger sister.

Police in Northern Ireland first became aware of McCartney in 2019 when they received a report from officers in Scotland that a 13-year-old girl was being groomed by an online predator.

When detectives located McCartney’s home that year, they arrested him and seized 64 devices containing tens of thousands of photos and videos of underage girls engaging in sexual acts after being blackmailed through numerous fake online accounts, including Snapchat.

Online extortion of minors is also a big problem in the United States. According to the FBI website, there has been a “major increase” in online blackmail against children and teenagers who are forced to send sexually explicit images. The same goes for what the FBI calls “financial blackmail,” in which predators threaten to release sexually explicit images unless they receive payment.

From October 2021 through March 2023, more than 13,000 cases of underage financial extortion were reported to the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, involving at least 12,600 victims, mostly males.

Authorities have stepped up efforts to bust sextortion schemes that often target minors. According to the FBI, from January 2021 to July 2023, at least 20 teenagers committed suicide after being caught in such a scam.

The devastating consequences have prompted authorities and victim advocates to organize awareness campaigns to teach young people how to protect themselves and to emphasize that help is available if they are victimized.

McCartney will be eligible for parole before 2039, when the parole board can review his case. He has been detained since 2019.

This article was first published on: New York Times.