The heinous offences committed by Alexander McCartney have been pronounced as “wicked and disturbing” by Irish Premier Simon Harris, who also commended the Northern Ireland Police Service (PSNI) for ensuring justice was delivered for the party from County Armagh. Last Friday, McCartney was given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years after his internet deceptions led to the demise of a 12-year-old girl in America.
Mr Harris emphasised that such “terrible, abhorrent and repugnant” offences demonstrated the necessity for greater collaboration across the border, urging the European Union to expedite the approval of a directive on child abuse prevention. As McCartney, a 26-year-old from Lissummon Road in Newry, was facing sentencing for a total of 185 charges including manslaughter, Judge O’Hara stated that he leveraged social media to cause significant harm to young girls.
Police reported that McCartney may have impacted up to 3,500 victims across the globe. The crimes McCartney confessed to included inducing the suicide of Cimarron Thomas, a 12-year-old from West Virginia, by harassing her on Snapchat in May of 2018. Ben Thomas, her father and a former US military servicemen, took his life 18 months later.
The Taoiseach complimented the PSNI on their excellent collaboration with international law enforcement agencies to halt these extremely detestable crimes against children. The case, one of the most vile and chilling ever encountered, underscored the necessity for a directive against child sexual abuse from the European Union, according to him.
Mr Harris also noted that Justice Minister Helen McEntee had been at the forefront of this initiative at the European level. He emphasised that while the right to privacy matters, there is a higher priority of safeguarding children and ensuring their protection and welfare. Expressing disapproval of the omnipresence of fully encrypted applications, he reiterated the need for stronger efforts at the European level as the new EU Commission assumes its role to implement a Europe-wide directive on child sexual abuse.