A UK man must serve at least 20 years of a life sentence after blackmailing young victims online over sexual photos, reports the BBC. One of Alexander McCartney's many victims was 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas of West Virginia, who took her own life in 2018 after McCartney threatened to send images to her father, per CBS News. In what is described as the UK's largest-ever catfishing case, the 26-year-old McCartney pleaded guilty to 185 charges involving 70 child victims. However, the BBC reports that McCartney targeted as many as 3,500 young victims in more than 30 countries. The charges included blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and producing and distributing child pornography.
"In my judgment, it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant," said the judge in the Belfast case, per the Guardian. "There has not been a case such as the present where the defendant has used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls, up to and including the death of a 12-year-old girl." The judge added that he sensed no "remorse or shame" in McCartney.
A separate BBC story details the toll on the family of 12-year-old Cimarron in West Virginia. "We have been robbed, and our lives have been changed forever," reads an impact statement from the girl's grandparents. Authorities say Cimarron took her own life when McCartney demanded she perform a sex act with her 9-year-old sister. When Cimarron said she would rather kill herself, McCartney said he didn't care and put up a countdown clock. (Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org.)
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