How catfish Alexander McCartney was finally caught after 12-year-old girl's suicide

Alexander McCarthy would pose a young girl to befriend other girls on Snapchat. Once they sent him photographs he would blackmail them and threaten to reveal them online or to their families

Dubbed the world's worst catfish Alexander McCarthy has today been jailed for a minimum of 20 years after one of his young victim's killed herself.

The 26-year-old sat in a bedroom in his childhood home blackmailing and threatening children all over the world. He would pose a young girl to befriend other girls on Snapchat, he would target vulnerable girls aged between 10 and 16 who were gay or exploring their sexuality.

Once they shared intimate details and photographs, he would reveal the scam and threatening to share them with their families and online. He would blackmailed them into taking part in sex acts. In some instances, he demanded his victims involve younger siblings. McCartney told one girl he would get people to go to her house to rape her if she did not comply with his demands.

Victims have been identified around the world, including 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas. The youngster 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.

Eighteen months later, her heartbroken father Ben Thomas also died by suicide. McCartney pleaded guilty to manslaughter relating to Cimarron’s death.

Previous court hearings were told the investigation began in 2018 following a report made to police in Scotland that a girl was being blackmailed on Snapchat. That investigation led them straight to McCartney. When his home was searched, they took away his computer and mobile phone.

When the devices were examined, police discovered thousands of images of young girls in "various states of dress and undress, performing various sexual acts". Officers found dozens more victims. McCartney was arrested several times between 2016 and 2019 but shockingly continued to offend despite bail conditions, until he was finally remanded in custody.

At a pre-sentence hearing last week, a prosecuting barrister said McCartney had degraded and humiliated his victims, stating that the harm caused to them was “unquantifiable”.

When police raided his home, he was in the middle of offending and Snapchat was open on one of his phones. Devices seized from his bedroom were found to contain hundreds of thousands of indecent photographs and videos of underage girls.

Detectives soon realised that McCartney’s offending had spread around the world. Working with colleagues in the US Homeland Security and the National Crime Agency, victims were located in the US, Australia, New Zealand and at least 28 other countries. One source with knowledge of the investigation said his offending was “quite frankly, relentless”.

He began offending as a teenager, using multiple devices and operating across different time zones. The source said he built a “paedophile enterprise”. While many of the victims have never been traced, based on the images recovered from his electronic devices, they are believed to number about 3,500.

His victims always believed, at first, that they were talking online to a girl of a similar age. McCartney used images of previous victims to create new profiles, assuming their identities as he targeted new children.

He targeted young girls who were vulnerable or professing doubts about their sexual identity and body image. He would use this vulnerability to persuade them to send a photo. Once he had the image, McCartney would go to the notes section of his phone where he had a pre-prepared statement which he would cut and paste into the conversation.

The message would typically say: “Alright I used a fake camera snap app. I have your face pic and nudes. You are gonna do as i say for tonight and then ill leave after. But if you don't them I'm uploading everything online for everyone to see. Understand?”

Although McCartney promised to leave the victims alone after one night, he often returned later to continue the abuse. He would blackmail them into sending more images or engaging in sexual activity online, threatening to share the images with other paedophiles.

He forced some children into abusing younger siblings or forced them to involve family pets and objects. The source said: “His depravity knew no bounds, he was abusing on an industrial scale.”

On one occasion, it took McCartney only nine minutes from meeting a 12-year-old girl for the first time until he had groomed, blackmailed and abused her. The source said: “He became so proficient doing this, it took minutes for him contacting someone to getting pictures.”

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