Alexander McCartney was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison last year
On Monday, the Police Ombudsman found that PSNI cybercrime units did not have the capacity or capability to effectively manage the risk posed by a prolific online predator Alexander McCartney.
Last year, McCartney, from Newry, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison after being convicted of offences including unlawful act manslaughter, inciting children to engage in sexual activity, and making and possessing indecent images of children.
He is believed to be the UK’s most prolific catfish offender, with victims identified across the world, and posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females on Snapchat before blackmailing them.
READ MORE: PSNI didn’t have ‘capacity’ to manage risk posed by online sex offenderREAD MORE: Victims of NI catfish abuser Alexander McCartney speak out
The Ombudsman report said that teams tasked with detecting and investigating online child sexual abuse by catfish abuser Alexander McCartney were under-resourced and under pressure, resulting in delayed police inquiries and the ineffective management of his bail conditions.
As part of the report, the Ombudsman’s office released a timeline of the PSNI investigation.
28 January 2016
McCartney’s home address is searched and 10 digital devices seized. In the following days, indecent images of children (IIOC), were found during an initial triage of a mobile phone.
4 February 2016
McCartney arrested for making, and possession and distribution of IIOC. Taken into custody. He was 17 at the time and was interviewed by police before being released on bail on February 5.
McCartney was made subject to two bail conditions:
- to live at an address approved by police and not to sleep in the same bedroom as his brother,
- and save for everyday contact, not to have any contact with children aged under 16 unless approved by Social Services, or in respect of his brother, while supervised by his mother or father.
31 August 2016
Answered bail and re-bailed.
6 December 2016
Answered bail and re-bailed.
7 February 2017
Answered bail. Bail conditions lifted after 12 months.
7 January 2018 – 18 February 2018
McCartney is in contact with a 13-year-old girl in Florida, who sends him a video of self-harm and another explicit video. PSNI do not become aware of this until September 2018, when a laptop seized from his home is examined.
12 March 2018
PSNI received information from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that McCartney had tricked a child in Lancashire into sending him an indecent image, then threatened to post it online. NCMEC also advise that indecent images of children had been uploaded from his home.
21 March 2018
Following the NCMEC notification, McCartney is arrested for a second time on suspicion of offences including making, possessing and distributing IIOC, blackmail and encouraging or assisting in the taking and distribution of IIOC.
McCartney was 19 and studying Computer Science at college at the time of his second arrest. His bedroom was searched, resulting in the seizure of eight more digital devices. Following an initial triage, five of these devices were submitted to other police teams for forensic examination.
He was interviewed and released on bail the same day and imposed the same bail conditions as in February 2016.
19 April 2018
Bail conditions lifted after police consulted with a social worker who advised that McCartney and his family were cooperating well with Social Services.
27 April 2018
McCartney is in contact with a 14-year-old girl in Los Angeles who sent him images involving self-harm.
7-11 May 2018
McCartney is in contact with 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia in the United States. Cimarron takes her own life less than an hour after the last contact.
In January 2020, Cimarron’s father, Benjamin Jay Thomas, also took his own life. His widow Stephanie Thomas was adamant that the deaths of her husband and daughter were a direct result of McCartney’s activities.
16 May 2018
McCartney interviewed in relation to indecent images of children discovered on devices seized from his home on 28 January 2016.
As well being interviewed about possession of IIOC, he is also interviewed for encouraging the taking, making and distribution of IIOC, as well as blackmail.
28 September 2018
A laptop (Laptop A) seized on 21 March 2018 was found to contain IIOC, as well as evidence that in January and February of that year McCartney had been in contact with an unidentified 13-year-old girl in Florida, during which the girl had sent him a video of self-harm and another explicit video.
2 January 2019
Laptop A was resubmitted to the Cyber Crime Centre with a higher priority to enable the production of an evidential report.
12 March 2019
Police Scotland advised the PSNI that a young person had received naked photos via Snapchat from a person whose internet address was linked to McCartney’s home.
18 March 2019
McCartney arrested for a third time, before being released on 6 months bail with an additional condition – ‘no access to the internet or any electronic device capable of connecting to the internet outside the University of Ulster in connection with studies.’
Police gained the ability to check that the condition was being complied with.
At that stage McCartney, then aged 20 and studying at university.
27 March 2019 – 6 June 2019
Within nine days, he had breached his bail conditions, having accessed Facebook and WhatsApp and created a PayPal account which he had used to send money to someone.
This and several other breaches became apparent in a report provided to police by the university.
11 April 2019
Completion of the forensic report on the mobile phone McCartney admitted was his, which was seized on 21 March 2018.
30 July 2019
McCartney was arrested for the fourth time on suspicion of possessing, making and distributing indecent images of children, sexual communication with a child, inciting children under 13 and 16 to engage in sexual activity, intimidation to do an act and breach of bail conditions.
He was remanded in custody and suspended by the university.
20 February 2020
Evidential report completed in relation to Laptop A, seized on 21 March 2018 and resubmitted in January 2019.
22 January 2021
McCartney pleaded guilty to 102 charges including making and possessing indecent images of children and inciting children to engage in sexual activity.
Police learn about Cimarron Thomas’s death the day before.
April 2021
Concerns about delays in the McCartney investigation led the PSNI Chief Constable to ask the Police Ombudsman to conduct an independent investigation into its handling of the case in the three years since McCartney’s home had first been searched in January 2016.
11 March 2024
Alexander McCartney is rearraigned and pleads guilty to the manslaughter of Cimarron Thomas. He was charged that on May 11, 2018 he unlawfully killed a female child.
25 October 2024
McCartney, 26 at the time, received a maximum sentence of 20 years from Belfast Crown Court, admitting to 185 charges including manslaughter, with 70 charges involving children.
He is believed to be the UK’s most prolific catfish offender with victims identified across the world.
Information and support for anyone affected by the issues raised is available on the Safer Schools NI website: Home – Safer Schools NI.
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