Callous UK catfisher drove heartbroken US dad and daughter, 12, to their deaths

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A court has heard how a 12-year-old girl took her own life rather than give into the horrific blackmail demands of the UK's most prolific catfisher.

Heartless Alexander McCartney tricked children into believing he was a young girl using platforms including Snapchat, before persuading them to send him intimate photos, reports the Mirror.The 'depraved' 26-year-old would later reveal the lie to victims, taunting them and threatening to expose the images they had sent unless they carried out 'degrading and humiliating' acts for him.

The computer student targeted at least 70 victims in this way, and is suspected of preying on thousands of girls, some as young as ten, using the computer in the bedroom of his family home in rural Northern Ireland.

Belfast Crown Court heard how one victim, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia in the United States, took her life using her father's handgun rather than give into McCartney's twisted demands.McCartney posed as a girl under the name Sarah 131X.