Detectives missed key opportunities to catch Britain’s worst catfisher as he preyed on 3,500 girls.
Alexander McCartney, 26, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years behind bars. It claimed victims in 30 countries during a campaign that lasted at least five years.
By ‘catfishing’ (using a fake identity to trick people online) as a child on the social media app Snapchat, McCartney groomed, blackmailed and abused young men around the world.
One of his American victims, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas, shot himself in the head with his father’s pistol before submitting to his sadistic demands.
Her father Ben, a US Army veteran, took his own life after being consumed by guilt for leaving his gun where she could access it at their home in West Virginia.
Alexander McCartney, 26, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years behind bars
McCartney, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cimarron and 184 other offences, relating to 70 sample cases, of blackmailing and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
McCartney, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Cimarron and 184 other offences, relating to 70 sample cases, of blackmailing and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Following his sentencing at Belfast Crown Court yesterday, the Mail can reveal that two opportunities to arrest him were missed, at least one of which could have saved Cimarron.
He was investigated twice on suspicion of hoarding indecent images, in 2016 and 2018, but neither investigation led to criminal charges.
His conduct only came to an end after a 13-year-old girl in Scotland revealed she was a victim, and in 2019 the UK’s largest catfishing investigation was launched. Missed opportunities to potentially save hundreds of girls are being investigated by Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
Jailing McCartney, Judge O’Hara said he was responsible for the “deviant and sadistic” persecution of vulnerable victims on an “industrial scale”, adding: “I find it difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses more of a risk than this accused”. .’
He described the former Ulster University computer science student as “devoid of normal human empathy” and gloating in his ability to demean his young victims.
Cimarron Thomas (right) with his US Army veteran father, Ben Thomas, who later took his own life after being consumed by guilt for leaving his gun where his daughter could access it.
Most of McCartney’s victims, who lived in countries including Britain, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, were between ten and 16 years old, but some were as young as four years old.
Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said: “McCartney is nothing more than a disgusting child predator who posed as girls online to groom, manipulate and sexually abuse his victims, aged just four. , to satisfy their own sexual perversions and those of other child sex offenders.’
McCartney contacted Cimarron in May 2018. After receiving intimate photos, he attempted to blackmail her into complying with his deviant demands.
Although she tearfully thanked him for stopping, McCartney threatened to send the photos to her father and friends.
When she rejected his demands and said she would shoot herself, he cruelly began a countdown and told her: “Goodbye and good luck.”
Her nine-year-old sister found her dying.
The family had no idea why Cimarron had committed suicide; The motive did not come to light until 2021, when Northern Ireland police found a transcript of the conversation between Cimarron and McCartney, which he had saved as a “trophy” on his computer.
Cimarrón and Ben Thomas with their mother Stephanie. The double tragedy destroyed the family
Cimarron’s family said McCartney “might as well have pulled the trigger” and were outraged that he was not charged with murder.
Prosecutor David McDowell described how McCartney “degraded and humiliated” his victims and showed no mercy when they begged him to stop. McCartney, who refused to listen and sat in the dock with his hands over his ears, told one girl he would have someone come to his house to rape her if she didn’t comply.
When another said his mother was dying of cancer, he said, “I don’t care” and continued his relentless abuse. Raised in a quiet farming community less than ten miles from the Irish border, McCartney lived with his father, a timber yard manager, his mother and three brothers in a five-bedroom bungalow near Newry. From a very young age he showed an aptitude for computers and later studied computer science at university.
When the network went down, police raided his home while he was in his room, “literally in the middle of a crime, with Snapchat open,” sources told the Mail. More than 60 digital devices were seized and forensically examined.
What they contained—graphic images, plus records of conversations with terrified girls McCartney had saved, apparently as trophies—surprised even the most seasoned detectives.
Investigators in the United States praised Snapchat’s cooperation after the company provided “everything it could” for the investigation.
A man who knows McCartney’s family told the Mail they were “very loved” and added: “This must be hell for them.”
“What he did is beyond disgusting.”