A court in the has sentenced a 26-year-old man to life in prison after being found guilty of 185 charges, including the manslaughter of a girl who took her own life and online child sexual abuse and blackmail.
Alexander McCartney posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females around the world on messaging apps before blackmailing them, the court in Belfast, , heard.
One of his victims, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia, in the United States, took her own life in 2018 with her father’s gun during online contact with McCartney.
McCartney admitted the charges involving 70 children and was told he would spend at least 20 years behind bars.
What do we know about the case?
The court heard that the computer science student groomed victims around the world on messagingsites including Snapchat and Instagram.
The prosecution said McCartney made his victims believe they were talking online to a teenage girl of similar age.
He would then encourage them to send indecent images or engage in sexual activity via a webcam or mobile phone, which he would then share online.
The court was told that the images were then used to threaten his victims.
He sometimes forced his victims to involve siblings as young as three in the abuse.
Cimarron Thomas died by suicide in May 2018 after McCartney demanded that she involve her younger sister in sex acts he had coerced her into.
Eighteen months later, her distraught father Ben Thomas also died by suicide.
McCartney previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter relating to Cimarron’s death.
The court previously heard that some of McCartney’s other victims were in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
McCartney also admitted 59 counts of blackmail, dozens of charges related to making and distributing indecent photographs and scores of charges of inciting children to engage in sexual activity.
This breaking news story will be updated shortly
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