Man gets decades in prison for an international child exploitation scheme

In Northern Ireland, a 26-year-old man received a hefty sentence of at least 20 years behind bars on Friday. After being convicted in a UK court, he was branded the mastermind behind the country's biggest criminal "catfishing" scheme.

Earlier this year, Alex McCartney, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in a Northern Irish court. This came after a young American girl, one of the thousands he allegedly blackmailed online, tragically took her own life.

McCartney admitted to a total of 185 charges involving 70 child victims in court — including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and producing and distributing indecent images of children. The UK's Press Association news agency reported that he was deemed responsible for the death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia.

Cimarron Thomas, a resident of West Virginia who lived with her family, ended her life in May 2018. According to authorities, during Cimarron's online interactions with McCartney, he tried to coerce her into sending explicit images involving her younger sibling.

McCartney was already under investigation at the time of Thomas' death and was about to face charges from British investigators when authorities discovered her identity and the circumstances surrounding her suicide, CBS News' partner network BBC News reported.

Thomas' father, a U.S. Army veteran, died by suicide 18 months after his daughter, unaware of the circumstances behind Cimarron's death.

Jim Gamble, a former senior British police officer specializing in child safety, told BBC News that it was a "shocking case," citing the sheer scale and horrific nature of the harm inflicted on the young victims.

Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan of the Police Service of Northern Ireland called McCartney "nothing but a disgusting child predator" who posed as young girls online to groom, manipulate, and sexually abuse victims as young as four years old.

McCartney's crimes occurred between 2014 and 2019, when he's believed to have targeted about 3,500 victims worldwide, mostly via Snapchat, according to the Press Association. The case focused on 70 child victims, including Thomas.