Alexander McCartney, a 26-year-old from Northern Ireland, has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison after admitting to 185 charges involving 70 children, in the largest 'catfishing' case in the UK. McCartney, posing as a teenage girl on Snapchat, blackmailed young girls across the world into sending indecent images, including 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia, who took her own life in 2018 rather than comply with his demands, and whose father, Ben Thomas, also died by suicide 18 months later. McCartney's offenses, which spanned from 2014 to 2019, have been described as causing unquantifiable harm, with victims identified globally, including in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. He was found guilty of manslaughter in relation to Cimarron's death, along with numerous counts of blackmail and inciting children to engage in sexual activities. McCartney used his technical skills as a computer science student to conduct these crimes from his childhood home.