Appeal to parents after ‘most depraved’ catfish case

Prosecutors in Northern Ireland who worked on the case of Alexander McCartney described the case as the largest, most complex and depraved investigation into sexual offences they had ever worked on.

26-year-old Alexander McCartney was the subject of one of the largest investigations in the world into the sexual extortion of children has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl and more than 180 other offences relating to child abuse.

Alexander McCartney pretended to be a teenage girl to target children across the world, a practice known as catfishing.

He pleaded guilty to a total of 185 offences involving 70 young girls who were aged between 10 and 16 when he targeted them via social media platforms, mostly Snapchat.

They included the manslaughter of Cimmaron Thomas from West Virginia in the US, who took her own life as a result of being blackmailed by him.

He was given a life sentence, with a minimum tariff of 20 years before he can be considered for release.