TEEN PREDATOR/ONLINE KILLER
3 x 30' - BBC THREE /BBC ONE NI (2024)
In October 2024, 26-year-old Alexander McCartney was sentenced to life imprisonment for convictions including manslaughter, child sexual offences and blackmail.
His manslaughter conviction is believed to be the first of its kind in the world.
Teen Predator/Online Killer for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Three features interviews with three of McCartney’s many victims.
They’ve spoken for the first time about their experiences and the devastating impact of McCartney’s actions. We’ve protected their identities, but allowed their testimony to be heard in a shocking and important account of online predation and its effects.
The series also includes testimony from the family of Cimarron Thomas, the young girl who died by suicide at the age of 12. Peggy and Dale Thomas from Maryland in the United States are the grandparents of Cimarron. They had no idea why their granddaughter Cimarron took her own life in 2018. It was years later when they learned the truth that she had been abused by McCartney including up to the time of her death. Tragically Cimarron’s father, Ben, died by suicide 18 months after Cimarron’s death. He did not know about his daughter's abuse or why she took her own life.
The series also features unique access to the multi-agency international investigation, piecing together the work of the detectives and special agent who led the hunt for McCartney and reveals the events which led to this prolific online predator finally being convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
EPISODE 1 - UNCOVERING A PREDATOR
Twenty-year-old Alexander McCartney, already known to police, is arrested and his devices seized after a 12-year-old girl in Scotland reports a serious catfishing abuse incident online. McCartney gives a ‘no comment’ interview while in custody, and without enough physical evidence to charge him, he is released on bail.
Back home at his parents’ house, McCartney’s bail conditions are supposed to prevent him from using devices that can connect to the internet. Meanwhile, a second report comes in to the police about another catfishing abuse victim linked to online activity from McCartney’s home address. This time, it involves a young girl in New Zealand.
As the police continue to gather up enough physical evidence to charge McCartney, the Cyber Crime Centre completes the analysis of one of his devices, revealing a prolific online predator at a scale never before seen by police in Northern Ireland.
EPISODE 2 - A RACE AGAINST TIME
With hundreds of thousands of images of child abuse discovered on McCartney’s devices, the race is on to get him remanded into custody. McCartney is rearrested in the early hours of the morning, at which time police discover McCartney’s phone on his bedside table, where his final victim was abused on Snapchat just hours before.
The US Department of Homeland Security notify the police in Northern Ireland of two more catfishing victims, this time in the United States, and a multiagency international investigation is triggered.
As McCartney is remanded into custody, police across the world work together to identify and safeguard the thousands of victims discovered on McCartney’s devices. Police are especially keen to identify and locate a 14-year-old girl in Oregon, whose images McCartney used to catfish hundreds of other children.
With McCartney due in court to plead guilty to charges of making indecent of images of children and blackmail, the case takes a different turn when Homeland Security finds an obituary page for Cimarron Thomas, one of his victims in West Virginia.
EPISODE 3 - JUSTICE
TAs police piece together the last few minutes of Cimarron’s life, they realise McCartney was still online threatening her when she tragically shot herself. Police and prosecutors move quickly to establish if there’s a case for manslaughter.
Police from Northern Ireland travel to West Virginia to conduct the manslaughter investigation, where they learn that Cimarron’s own family had no idea why she took her own life. In a tragic turn, they learn that 18 months after her death, Cimarron’s father had also died by suicide.
In order to charge McCartney with manslaughter, the police have to prove that he foresaw the risk to her life. As they comb through the cyber evidence from his devices, they build a case for manslaughter and charge him. The case sets new legal precedent in the UK.
More than five years after the police investigation began, McCartney is finally convicted and sentenced.