Even then my only familiarity with the catfish was an enjoyable lunch with a friend in London's Covent Garden Market about thirty years ago.
When 26 year old Newry predator Alexander McCartney was jailed for life last week for 185 offences against 70 children the term has been on seemingly every newsfeed. Apparently its provenance can be traced to a 2010 documentary about online deception, and involves 'the use of a fake online identity to target other online users, which then leads to sexual abuse, exploitation and blackmail.'
The world in which McCartney, a one time University of Ulster computer science student, plied his vile trade was one of cyberbullying, trolls and bots, giving him a readymade home with no shortage of company of his own breed.
Like with every typology we create, there are aways gradients within, varying from bad to worse. If there are predators more vile than McCartney, it will take some work to find them. The Public Prosecution Service characterised the case as one of the most "depraved, distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse that we have ever seen." His morality towards children is of the type that it is probably only to be to be found in considerable quantities within the ranks of the world's 'most moral army', the IDF.
Like with every typology we create, there are aways gradients within, varying from bad to worse. If there are predators more vile than McCartney, it will take some work to find them. The Public Prosecution Service characterised the case as one of the most "depraved, distressing and prolific cases of child sexual abuse that we have ever seen." His morality towards children is of the type that it is probably only to be to be found in considerable quantities within the ranks of the world's 'most moral army', the IDF.
The BBC detailed his convictions: 'Between January 2021 and March 2024 Alexander McCartney pleaded guilty to:
- One count of manslaughter
- 14 counts of causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity involving penetration
- 32 counts of causing or inciting a girl between the age of 13 and 16 to engage in sexual activity involving penetration
- Nine counts of causing a girl under 13 years of age to engage in sexual activity
- 14 counts of causing a girl aged between 13 and 16 to engage in sexual activity
- 58 counts of blackmail
- 29 counts of making indecent images of children
- 11 counts of distributing indecent images of children
- Two counts of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent
- 12 counts of possessing indecent images of children
- One count of intimidation
- One count of possessing prohibited images of children
- One count of sexual communication with a child
The judge who jailed McCartney placed his offending on a par with murder, adding that "it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant". For that reason he imposed a tariff of twenty years on the predator who, because he has been in custody for the past five, will be eligible for release in 2039. Despite this, the judge warned that “I do not envy the commissioners having to reach their decision at that point.” Basically a call for those reviewing the case in fifteen years to think long and hard before assenting to release. With such strong predilections, having preyed on children since he was sixteen, being bailed twice before being imprisoned, it might be a lot to expect McCartney to have shed them by the time he is 41. Most likely there will be fewer objections if his release is postponed until he is 91.
One of McCartney's victims was 12 year old Cimarron Thomas, who took her own life three minutes after he had threatened to put compromising photos of her online if she did not comply with his demands to use her younger sister for his sexual gratification. Utterly distraught and sobbing at the time, when she told the predator that she was going to end her own life his response was "good luck and goodbye”. Her father took his own life eighteen months later out of despair and without knowing the true reasons behind his daughter's suicide.
It took a thirteen year old Scottish schoolgirl to report McCartney to Police Scotland to bring his career as a predator to an end. The PSNI is now being investigated by the Police Ombudsman following "concerns that the forensic examination of McCartney’s computers and electronic devices may have been delayed.”
When Richard Huckle - a prolific English paedophile who raped 200 Malaysian babies, toddlers and children - was found dead in his cell, strangled, raped and a pen rammed into his putrid brain, it was hard to disagree with his killer that he had received poetic justice. As an opponent of the death penalty in all circumstances, I can hardly endorse the the killing of Huckle. I simply have not the slightest compassion for him, being sorely tempted by the wisdom that if you hold a predator under water long enough they stop being a predator.
If McCartney sets himself alight and burns slowly to death, hopefully the fire brigade will set out from West Virginia, the home state of Cimarron Thomas. To quote the sadist: IDC - I Don’t Care.
⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre. |
Not in favour of Capital Punishment as the Law often errors but this type of case pushes the line.
ReplyDeleteIt sure tests your resolve
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