Overview

• Alexander McCartney, 26, operated a vast catfishing network from his home in Northern Ireland, posing as a young girl to blackmail children worldwide.
• His offenses included manslaughter, blackmail, and causing children to engage in sexual acts, with victims across 30 countries.
• The case involved one of the largest catfishing investigations globally, with McCartney exploiting vulnerabilities in children aged 10 to 16.
• McCartney's actions led to the suicide of Cimarron Thomas, a 12-year-old girl from West Virginia, marking the first UK manslaughter conviction of its kind.
• Authorities seized tens of thousands of indecent images from McCartney's devices, highlighting the industrial scale of his predatory behavior.