A “relentless and merciless” on-line predator who blackmailed women around the globe was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in jail on Friday after being convicted of the manslaughter of a sufferer who took her personal life.
Prosecutors say 26-year-old Alexander McCartney, from Newry in Northern Ireland, pretended to be a teenage woman and carried out catfishing assaults on 3,500 feminine victims he contacted on platforms together with Snapchat.
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Catfishing is utilizing a pretend on-line id to deceive victims. Authorities mentioned McCartney inspired his victims to ship intimate images or have interaction in intercourse acts, then extorted them by threatening to share the pictures.
A 12-year-old in West Virginia killed herself in Could 2018 throughout a web-based chat with McCartney as he demanded intercourse acts. The sufferer’s father died by suicide 18 months later.
Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan, Police Service of Northern Eire and Catherine Kierans, NI Public Prosecution Service, converse to the media exterior Belfast Crown Courtroom after prolific on-line predator Alexander McCartney was jailed for at least 20 years after admitting 185 fees involving 70 youngsters, on Friday. (Brian Lawless/PA through AP)
Prosecutors mentioned they imagine that is the primary time somebody has been convicted of manslaughter in a case the place sufferer and perpetrator by no means met.
“Working carefully with police, the prosecution workforce was in a position to set up to the prison customary that McCartney’s actions had induced the woman’s demise, and he had a case to reply for manslaughter,” mentioned Catherine Kieran, appearing Head of the Northern Eire Public Prosecution Service Critical Crime Unit.
Police have recognized victims in 30 international locations, including Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
McCartney, who carried out his crimes from the bed room of his childhood house, pleaded responsible to 185 fees involving 70 youngsters, together with the manslaughter cost. At Belfast Crown Courtroom, decide John O’Hara sentenced him to life with no likelihood of parole for 20 years.
“To my data there has not been a case reminiscent of the current the place a defendant has used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such horrible and catastrophic harm,” the decide mentioned.
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Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Eire mentioned exterior court docket that McCartney was a “relentless and merciless” pedophile.
“We can not underestimate the devastation that he has induced and the childhoods he has stolen,” the officer mentioned. “There was nothing that was going to cease him, other than placing him in jail.”
