It was a crime discovered in a rural Co Armagh house that led to one of world’s largest catfishing investigations and the suicide of a child.
In a Belfast court last Monday, the man at the centre of the investigation, Alexander McCartney (26), pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl who he admitted blackmailing online six years ago.
It is believed to be a legal first.
The victim was not from the UK and cannot be named for legal reasons. The child took her own life in May 2018 after being blackmailed over a four-day period.
Catfishing involves using a fake online identity to target other online users, which then leads to sexual abuse, exploitation and blackmail.
McCartney, a former Ulster University computer science student from the Lissummon Road outside Newry, previously admitted to 185 offences mainly connected to the sexual abuse of more than 60 child victims from as far away as New Zealand and the United States. Many of his victims were under the age of 13.
Media had been banned from reporting McCartney’s earlier guilty pleas.
But the lifting of those reporting restrictions by a judge this week led to the case dominating headlines not just in Northern Ireland but across international media outlets. Auckland-based daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald was among those to cover the story.
[ The woman behind the face behind the catfishOpens in new window ]
It emerged that McCartney’s victims were mainly girls whom he had targeted over a six-year period, beginning in 2013.
Snapchat, the online messaging App, was used in the majority of contacts. The social media company described the case as “horrific” and said in a statement to the BBC that its “heart went out to the victims”.
Scottish police began investigating McCartney in 2018 after receiving a complaint. His computer and mobile phone were seized from the family home on the country road.
If it seems too good to be true, then there’s probably something not quite right. If their interests are identical to yours, there’s a reason for that
— Jim Gamble, former head of UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
When detectives examined the devices, they found thousands of images of young girls in “various states of dress and undress, performing various sexual acts”.
At the earlier court hearings, which took place in Newry in 2021 and 2022, McCartney had admitted to multiple charges of causing a child to engage in a sex act, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and sexual communication with a child.
He also pleaded guilty to 59 counts of blackmail and dozens of offences related to the possession and distribution of indecent photographs of children.
Victim impact statements will be submitted to the court before the next hearing in May, when sentencing will take place. McCartney has been on remand since 2019 and was returned to custody following the hearing last Monday.
[ Reports of sexual exploitation of children double in 2023Opens in new window ]
For a former senior police officer and online safety expert, the case’s significance is not due to the numbers involved but due to the fact “it demonstrates that the long arm of the law can stretch into a digital space, where people feel they can act without consequence, and catch them”.
Jim Gamble, a former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said there were “plenty of ways” these issues could be dealt by a concerned parent or young person.
Mr Gamble oversaw the UK’s biggest computer crime investigation, Operation Ore, more than 20 years ago into suspected paedophiles, and now specialises in online safeguarding. “If [a child or young person is] looking at someone [online] and wondering if they’re real, if it seems too good to be true, then there’s probably something not quite right. If their interests are identical to yours, there’s a reason for that,” he said.
“And actually, the way to test that is to ask them about one of your obscure obsessions or likes – and they will most likely not be able to answer. The other thing that you can do is take their image and put it into Google image search. What that will do is show you if it is someone else’s image or it’s not turning up, that’s a warning sign.
“The key is: don’t overreact. The sooner you come forward, the sooner it will be dealt with and the sooner the image will either be blocked or removed.”
In the wake of the case’s details being made public for the first time, calls to a charity providing support to victims of domestic and sexual abuse in Northern Ireland have soared.
Figures provided to The Irish Times reveal that webchat engagement with the Nexus helpline increased by more than 130 per cent since the story broke.
Concerns about online activity and “what’s being asked about them online” were among the main reasons for contact, according to Nexus chief executive, Joanne Barnes.
“We looked at our stats from last Monday to this Monday and there’s around a 20 per cent increase in caller activity. That’s not just calls, that’s emails, webchats and then calls to the helpline,” she said.
“Interestingly, we saw a 131 per cent increase on webchat. That would suggest to us a younger audience, because they don’t like to talk. I can’t be sure that it’s all young people – parents may also have contacted us. There were 3,799 webchats compared to 29 the week before.
‘Coercive control is what lies at the heart of catfishing. There’s naturally going to be fear about reporting something, because you might not be necessarily clear in your own mind whether this is someone pretending to be someone they’re not’
— Joanne Barnes, Nexus charity
“Usually around Christmas time and holiday periods we would see spikes like this, but there’s certainly no reason at this point in time why we should be seeing such a spike. There is definitely a correlation between the reporting of this case and the rise in our online activity.”
Ms Barnes urged young victims to “reach out” for help if they “feel in their gut” something isn’t right with a person they are engaging with online.
“Coercive control is what lies at the heart of catfishing. There’s naturally going to be fear about reporting something, because you might not be necessarily clear in your own mind whether this is someone pretending to be someone they’re not,” she said.
“If you have that feeling that something doesn’t feel right, you might not feel comfortable speaking with mum or dad because you may worried about the consequences of phones or tablets being removed. I would say talk to a teacher or someone you feel you could reach out to and get advice about how you maybe end that engagement.
“This will pass, it can be overcome. You are the victim; no one is going to blame you.”
Ms Barnes said the myth of “what goes online stays online” must be tackled: “This is no longer true. Technology has changed, things have moved on, things can be erased online.”
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