Britain’s worst catfish told a 12-year-old girl he was going to be “my little toy for the night” in vile Snapchats after tricking her into sending him intimate photos of herself.
Ailing Alexander McCartney admitted 184 offenses of blackmail and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity along with the manslaughter of terrified Cimarron Thomas. She committed suicide before submitting to his demands.
The 26-year-old, from Newry, South Armagh, pretended to be a teenager when she contacted hundreds of other young women, many of them gay or unsure of their sexuality.
In gruesome messages between him and one of his child victims, his perverted tactics are laid bare as he can be seen joking and flirting before suddenly turning nasty.
Revealing her crimes, the former Ulster University student goes from calling her “cute” to threatening to flood the Internet with her photographs and reveling in his control over her.
He wrote: ‘Alright, I used a fake camera app. I have your face and nude photo. You’re going to do what I tell you tonight and then I’ll leave.
A mugshot of ‘Britain’s worst catfish’ Alexander McCartney who lived in Northern Ireland
In the horrific messages between Alexander McCartney and one of his child victims, his perverted tactics are laid bare as he can be seen joking and flirting before suddenly turning nasty.
‘But if you don’t, I’ll put it all online for everyone to see. Understand?’
The computer science student continues: ‘As long as you obey and do what I tell you, nothing will happen and I will leave you alone after tonight, understand?’
And in a chilling conclusion, he adds: “You’re going to be my little toy tonight.”
In the terrifying exchange, the young woman begins by sending excitable and innocent messages full of emojis and love hearts.
But after McCartney’s identity is revealed, the tone takes a tragic turn as she finds herself helpless in his trap.
“Now I’m scared,” she replies, before sending one-word responses of compliance to his sick demands.
Most of McCartney’s victims were between 10 and 16 years old and lived in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Prosecutor David McDowell spent 90 minutes describing how McCartney had “degraded and humiliated” his victims and showed no mercy when they begged him to stop.
Catfishing involves using a false online identity to befriend and exploit victims.
Pretending to be a girl, McCartney found and befriended girls who were said to be struggling with sexuality.
He cajoled them into obtaining a compromising photograph and then used it to blackmail and threaten the teenagers into committing heinous acts.
Each victim was terrified that their intimate photos would be exposed to family and friends.
McCartney told one girl he would have people come to her 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.
Prosecutors said he carried out the abuse for his own sexual gratification.
It only came to an end after a girl in Scotland complained she was a victim of catfishing and the UK’s largest catfishing investigation was launched.
In March 2019, Police Scotland contacted their counterparts in Northern Ireland about a 13-year-old girl who had been groomed by an adult using the alias of someone her age.
McCartney was located and arrested. Police confiscated 64 devices and found tens of thousands of images of underage girls performing sexual acts while being blackmailed.
Alexander McCartney (pictured), 26, operated from the bedroom of his family home in rural Northern Ireland and persuaded young girls to send naked photographs of themselves.
His lawyers said McCartney had shown genuine remorse and since being arrested in 2019 has been remanded in custody for five years.
He first contacted Cimarron Thomas in May 2018.
After receiving intimate photographs, he attempted to blackmail her into complying with his deviant demands.
Despite tearfully pleading with him to stop it, McCartney threatened to send the photos to his father and friends.
When she rejected his demands and said she would shoot herself, he callously started a countdown and told her “goodbye and good luck.”
The young woman was found dying by her nine-year-old sister.
A general view of Newry High Street in Northern Ireland, near where Alexander McCartney lived
The police who carried out the investigation into McCartney today made public the emergency call made by a neighbor who rushed to help the young woman.
McCartney used his technical knowledge as a computer science student to carry out his crimes, prosecutors said
Much of the call is muffled, but the 911 operator can be heard telling the neighbor to apply pressure to the head wound.
Cimarrón’s 40-year-old father, a U.S. Army veteran, took his own life 18 months after her death.
At that time the family from a rural town had no idea why Cimarrón had committed suicide.
It was not until 2021, when police found a transcript of the conversation between Cimarron and McCartney that they were able to tell them the reason for his death.
He had kept the online chat as a “trophy” on his computer.
Relatives told Mail Online that the evil McCartney “could also pull the trigger” and were outraged that he was not charged with murder.
They had hoped he would be extradited to the United States, but State Department officials say that won’t happen.
Members of the Thomas family said the double tragedy had torn their family apart: Cimarrón’s mother, Stephanie, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and six years later couldn’t bring herself to talk about her daughter’s death.
