Northern Irish man sentenced to prison for West Virginia girl’s suicide, other crimes

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October 26 (UPI) — Alexander McCartney was sentenced to life in prison for the manslaughter of a West Virginia girl he “broadcast” on a mobile messaging app and other crimes, including blackmail.

McCartney, 26, from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty on Friday to 185 charges relating to a years-long prison sentence. hunting young girls online and via messaging apps, including 58 attempts to blackmail his victims.

McCartney I created fake profiles This shows that she was a teenage girl and used social media to target nearly 3,500 victims between the ages of 10 and 16 in more than 30 countries.

He pleaded guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from the 2018 death of a 12-year-old West Virginia girl who committed suicide when she was targeted by McCartney.

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

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

His victims included the West Virginia girl McCartney targeted on Snapchat, 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 life.

McCartney was also convicted of numerous counts of causing children to engage in sexual activity and sexual intercourse with a child.

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

O’Hara described McCartney’s crimes, which involved “sadism and depravity” as “sex abuse”; this carried a life sentence, which was usually only imposed on murder convictions.

The judge also said McCartney continued to commit crimes while awaiting trial and being released on bail.

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

“I find it difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant,” O’Hara said.

McCartney claimed he was subjected to online harassment in his youth, but O’Hara denied this claim when sentencing McCartney.

Police said McCartney primarily used Snapchat, Instagram and Kik to create fake online profiles to trick his victims into posting and sending them sexual images.

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

He also made sure some of his victims included younger siblings or pets, and he often targeted teenage 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 told her.