Northern Ireland man convicted in West Virginia girl’s suicide and other crimes

Oct. 26 (UPI) — Alexander McCartney is sentenced to life in prison for the manslaughter of a West Virginia girl he “fished out” using a mobile messaging app, as well as other crimes, including blackmail.

McCartney, 26, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty on Friday to 185 charges relating to years catching young girls on the Internet and via instant messengers, including 58 attempts to blackmail their victims.

McCartney created fake profiles which indicated he was a young girl and used social media to target up to 3,500 victims aged 10 to 16 in over 30 countries.

He pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of a 12-year-old West Virginia girl who committed suicide in 2018 after being targeted by McCartney.

Belfast Crown Court Judge John O’Hara on Friday convicted McCartney to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for at least 20 years.

McCartney “used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such terrible and catastrophic harm on young girls,” O’Hara said in sentencing McCartney on Friday.

His victims included a West Virginia girl whom McCartney targeted on Snapchat and who committed suicide in May 2018.

The girl’s father, Ben Thomas, was a US Army veteran who committed suicide 18 months after his daughter took her own life.

McCartney was also convicted of multiple offenses involving soliciting children to engage in sexual activity and communicating with a child of a sexual nature.

He also pleaded guilty to 58 charges of blackmail and possessing indecent images of children between 2013 and 2019.

O’Hara called McCartney’s crimes “sexual exploitation” that included “sadism and depravity” and necessitated a life sentence that is usually only given on a murder conviction.

The judge also found that McCartney continued to commit crimes while awaiting trial and free on bail.

Police first searched McCartney’s home in January 2016 and arrested him in July 2019, but he continued with his actions, which “got progressively worse,” O’Hara said.

“It’s hard for me to imagine a sexual deviant who would pose a greater risk than this defendant,” O’Hara said.

McCartney claimed he was the victim of online abuse as a teenager, but O’Hara dismissed this claim in McCartney’s sentencing.

Police say McCartney primarily used Snapchat, Instagram and Kik to create fake online profiles to scam victims and trick them into sending him sexual images of themselves.

After receiving the photos, McCartney revealed his true identity and threatened to send the photos to his victims’ friends and family.

He also made some of his victims include their younger siblings or animals, and he often targeted young girls who were gay or questioning their sexuality.

He told one victim that he knew her address and that he would send people to rape her if she did not do what he said.