Live updates as UK's 'most prolific catfisher' Alexander McCartney is sentenced at Belfast Crown Court over manslaughter of 12-year-old girl who took her own life

The sentencing of the UK’s worst catfishing abuser Alexander McCartney was deliberately set for 2pm at Belfast Crown Court to allow many of his victims from overseas to watch the proceedings via video link.

The judge, Mr Justice O’Hara, told counsel a number of the young girls who were blackmailed by the 26-year-old computer student had requested to watch the sentencing in courtroom 13 at the modern Langanside Courthouse in Belfast city centre.

McCartney has been held at Maghaberry prison for the past five years after being arrested in 2019 when police seized 60 devices from his Newry home.

Having pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of 12 year old Cimarron Thomas from West Virginia the US Homeland Security Department had initially asked for McCartney to be extradited to America. The request was dropped after Northern Ireland’s courts took jurisdiction.

Investigators believe there could be a huge of victims as police found thousands of compromising photographs of young girls on his computers. The court was told the investigation uncovered 70 victims, but police admitted there were far more, with many too embarrassed to admit they had been catfished.

No members of McCartney’s family attended the first day of sentencing when prosecutor David McDowell took 90 minutes to described the ‘unquantifiable’ harm he had caused by catfishing young girls aged from 10 to 16.

Police said the investigation which began in 2019 was the largest ever carried out in the UK into catfishing – the term used to describe someone who takes on the identity of someone else.

The family of Cimarron Thomas expressed their rage after a father and daughter were driven to suicide by a prolific ‘catfish’ abuser.

Cimarron, 12, who was named for the first time after a court order protecting her identity was lifted earlier this month, used her father’s handgun to take her own life after being blackmailed online by computer student Alexander McCartney.

The Thomas family initially had no idea why their daughter had taken her life and were unaware of the depravity she had been subjected to.

Eighteen months after losing her daughter, Stephanie Thomas was dealt a double tragedy after her husband Ben, a former US army veteran, took his own life.

She told investigators that she has barely been able to talk about losing her loved ones.

A family friend said she suffers from PTSD and never speaks about the tragic events.

‘When the police from Northern Ireland asked to meet with her she just could not do it,’ said a family friend.

‘It was too much, and she refused to meet with them. I don’t know if she did later meet but we heard it was all too traumatic for her.’

Eighteen months after Cimarron’s death, her grief-stricken father Ben (pictured), a former US army veteran, took his own life, Belfast Crown Court was told.

Speaking to MailOnline, his brother said: ‘He might as well have pulled the trigger himself and killed both my niece and brother.

That man has torn the family apart. He should have been charged with murder and spend the rest of his life in prison.

It has been so hard for all the family to come to terms with what he did. We have all struggled.

The double tragedy ripped apart the Thomas family, who lived in a small town in West Virginia.

The girl’s grandfather Dale has a memorial bench dedicated to his son and granddaughter outside his home in Frostburg, Maryland.

Emblazoned with the badge of his son’s regiment, the 10th Mountain Division, it has the words ‘Faith had brought us through’ below the name of his granddaughter.

The family of Cimarron Thomas, who took her own life after being blackmailed by McCartney, are among those who will be watching the sentencing via a video link.

Cimarron, from Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, was tricked by McCartney who posed as a girl called Sarah to make online contact with her.

After persuading her to send him a topless photo by flattering her with comments about her body he suddenly revealed his true identity and demanded she submit to his demands for sexually depraved photos.

Cimarron was told if she did not comply her photos would be sent to her father.

In gut wrenching detail the prosecutor described how Cimarron pleaded with McCartney to stop.

Even when she was visibly distressed and crying, he told her to ‘dry her eyes’ and involve her younger sister aged nine in a sex act.

Cimarron refused and said she would rather kill herself with McCartney cruelly launching a countdown and telling her: ‘goodbye and good luck’.

Her grandfather Dale has previously said he had been looking forward to the case ending bringing to a close that saw his granddaughter and son die from self inflicted gunshot wounds.

In a heart-breaking victim impact statement read to the court he said the family’s lives will never be the same.

The 76 year old said the death of Cimarron had cheated the family of ever ‘seeing her graduate, attend a prom or walk down the aisle.’

Alexander McCartney abused more than 60 youngsters during a horrific online child abuse campaign that spanned five years.

The 26-year-old used a fake identity to commit online abuse, exploitation and blackmail of children. Girls he targeted lived in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

After taunting victims that they had been ‘catfished’, McCartney – who operated from the bedroom of his family home in rural Northern Ireland – would then force them into carrying out ‘degrading and humiliating’ acts.

A large investigation into McCartney commenced in 2018 after reports of blackmail over Snapchat were made to police in Scotland.

Investigators searched the pervert’s home and confiscated his mobile phone and computer.

On these devices police found thousands of pictures of young girls in ‘various states of dress and undress, performing various sexual acts’.

McCartney, originally from Lissummon Road outside Newry, has been on remand in Maghaberry Prison since 2019.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Alexander McCartney, one of the UK’s most notorious catfishers, is sentenced at Belfast Crown Court.

McCartney, 26, has admitted more than 180 charges including including blackmail and child sexual abuse after tricklng dozens of victims over a four-year period.

He also pleaded guilty to manslaughter after Cimarron Thomas, 12, from West Virginia, US, shot herself after she was blackmailed online.

McCartney, from County Armagh, was snared after one of the largest investigations in the world into so-called catfishing after he duped his victims into thinking he was a young girl.

We will bring you live updates from his sentencing hearing with our reporter Paul Thompson primed and ready at Belfast Crown Court.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to start at 2pm.