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Guardian

Guardian

Northern Irish man jailed for life after abusing at least 70 children online

Guardian
Summary
Nutrition label

64% Informative

Alexander McCartney , 26 , admitted to 185 charges including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and producing and distributing indecent images of children.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years at Belfast crown court.

McCartney was told he would spend at least 20 years in jail after a number of other sentences were taken into account.

One of his victims, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas , from West Virginia in the US , killed herself in May 2018 .

The computer science student posed as a young girl on Snapchat, befriending girls who were gay or exploring their sexuality.

Once he had secured a picture from his victims, he would then blackmail them into taking part in sex acts.

McCartney was arrested several times between 2016 and 2019 but continued to offend despite bail conditions until he was remanded in custody.

VR Score

53

Informative language

43

Neutral language

57

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

45

Offensive language

offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

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