UK's Largest Catfishing Case
The case of Alexander McCartney
Alexander McCartney carried on his crimes between 2013 and 2019. This case has been described as "the Uk's largest catfishing case".
Catfishing is when a person creates a fake persona , and they would befriend and lure in their victims. They mainly use social apps for this.
Alexander McCartney is from Northern Ireland. He used to sit behind his computer screen at his house and caused so much destruction to thousands of children's lives across the globe. You heard me he had victims all over the world and he mainly targeted children.
The Case
He used to approach a vast majority of his victims using Snapchat. Only in rare occasions he used other social apps such as Instagram and Kik.
He literally used 64 devices and pretended to be a young girl and he lured many young girls into sending him intimate photos.
He even sometimes used the pictures he had obtained from other young girls and pretended to be them when he was speaking to other new victims.
Once he had got some intimate pics , he would then blackmail them using those pics and he would ask them to listen to him. They would have to do whatever he asks of them, if they didn't those pics would end up online . His victims were so scared , they had no choice but to listen to him. It was being a nightmare for these young girls.
He would later proceed to force the children to involve their younger sibling or even a family pet in the abuse.
These young girls used to beg him to stop and begged that their pics would not be put online. The sad thing is he did not care . He simply did not care even when these young girl were begging him to stop.
Some of his victims even threatened him that they would kill themselves if he did not stop. One of them even send him a pic of a cut in her arm. To this his exact words were " I don't give a shit".
Another girl had texted him saying " I can't stop shaking , I think I'm going to die".
To this he replied " I don't care"
The police had even said that on several occasions he even shared the images he got with other paedophiles.
He used to keep records of all the children he had abused, and even took a screenshot of their Snapchat location pins so he knew where all hic victims were based.
Many of his child victims were never identified but sadly their lives would have changed forever.
The Tragic Incidence
Many investigators believed that at least 3,500 children were his victims but this case could focus on 70 of them in order to give a manageable caseload for the court to handle.
So far everything about this case was tragic , but things get worst . This case would end with a tragic consequences.
In 2018 , he messaged a girl by the name Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia , USA. She was only 12 years at that time.
Like other victims, initially he messaged her pretending to be a young girl. Made her feel comfortable , so she would send him an intimate pic. Once he got the pic, he immediately started to blackmail her , if she did not listen to him , her pic would end up online.
She had no other choice but to listen to him. She was so scared that she did not even tell anyone else what was happening to her. This was literally becoming a nightmare for her.
He kept on coming back to her , he demanded more pics. He even asked her to involve her younger sibling in the abuse.
This is when she drew the line, she could not let her younger sister be involve din this. She pleaded with him to stop , but sadly he did not care.
So, she took her family's legally held firearm and she shot herself in the head while she was still online with him.
You know what's even more worst , her younger sister found her dead. She literally had to see her older sister dying . This would have been so emotionally scarring for her.
This did not end here, 18 months later , her father was so struck by grief that he tragically took his own life.
A Disgusting Child Predator
Northern Ireland's police service was contacted by police service in Scotland. A report was made that a 13 year old girl was groomed by a man who was believed to be residing in Northern Island.
When they finally caught Alexander McCartney , they raided his home , his computers and his mobile. They found that he had tens and thousand of photos and videos of young girls performing sexual acts while being blackmailed.
Sentencing
Alexander McCartney was given a life sentence with minimum of 20 years for online sexual abuse of children and manslaughter of 12 year old girl.
Alexander McCartney (26) admitted to at least 185 charges and more than 50 blackmail offences.
This case was truly tragic and it was one worst catfishing case I heard of. I truly hope that all his victims find the strength to take care of themselves and be okay .
About the Creator
Megha Pavanagd
Love telling stories after all life is journey. I love to write a little bit of everything. I usually write whatever I feel like writing .
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Comments (2)
Thanks for sharing ✍️♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️
Oh wow, I've never heard of this case before. It's crazyyyyyy+