Northern Ireland Man Sentenced for Online Abuse

Alexander McCartney, a 26-year-old from Northern Ireland, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years for 185 charges of online child abuse and blackmail, including manslaughter linked to the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in 2018. McCartney, who posed as a teenage girl on platforms like Snapchat, targeted approximately 3,500 victims worldwide, encouraging them to send intimate images before extorting them. The court heard that his victim, Cimarron Thomas, took her life during an online interaction where McCartney demanded sexual acts. The judge described McCartney's actions as having inflicted