BELFAST: A Northern Irish man was given a life sentence on Friday for the mass online child sexual abuse and blackmail of young girls around the world, with police saying one incident led to a 12-year-old American girl and her father taking their own lives.

The court heard that 26-year-old computer science student Alexander McCartney, operating from the bedroom of his home, groomed victims on messaging sites including Snapchat and Instagram, by making them believe they were talking online to a teenage girl of similar age.

He would then encourage them to send indecent images or engage in sexual activity via a webcam or mobile phone, which he would then share online with others and used them to threaten the children.

He sometimes forced his victims to involve siblings as young as three in the abuse.

The charges related to 70 victims from countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland and Australia, but Northern Ireland police said that was a tiny fraction of around 3,500 victims believed to have been targeted in around 30 countries.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2024