cimarron thomas was targeted by mccartney on snapchat.er than comply with his demands, which included the abuse of her younger sister. her father ben took his own life 18 months later not knowing what happened to his daughter. it wasn't until 2021 that investigators discovered the abuse. detective chief superintendent eamonn corrigan read out a statement on behalf of the grandparents of cimarron thomas. "we all have been devastated . by our granddaughter's passing. we know that nothing that we do or say will bring her back, - but if we can help another family to not have to go . through what we did, _ something good could come out of her death. perhaps, parents, please keep the doors of communication i opened concerning the evil of some people online." i the bbc received this statement from snapchat. the social media company said... earlier, i spoke to our news correspondent angus crawford, who discussed how the digital landscape has changed. he says the time that the cases took place is significant. utterly horrific case, but which i thi

mccartney was very assiduous about saving the images, and he would also save the map on snapchat of wherehildren had raised the alarm and which helped police to actually identify him in the first place. but some of the children, until police knocked the door, they had never told anyone what they'd been through. for mccartney's victims, recovery is a daily battle. the court heard how many now suffer from flashbacks, suicidal thoughts, self—harm and trust issues. these are the words of a father of victims from new zealand. they have been spoken by an actor. it all happened for my daughter within minutes, you know. as soon as that first photo was sent, a sequence of events was in motion that, you know, could never be undone. and he'd obviously honed his craft over, you know, a significant period of time. and as soon as he had that power, she was playing by his rules. it's something she's going to deal with forever. we know she's on this medication all the time, and the darkest places that i'm sure her mind goes from time to time when she's alone. alexander mccartney's offending is over. its

cimarron thomas was targeted by mccartney on snapchat.took his own life 18 months later not knowing what happened to his daughter. it wasn't until 2021 that investigators discovered the abuse. a short time ago, detective chief superintendent eamonn corrigan, read out a statement on behalf of the the grandparents of cimarron thomas. we all have been devastated by her granddaughters passing and we know nothing that we do or say will bring her back. but if we can help another family did not have to go through what we did, something good can come out of her death. perhaps parents, police, keep the doors of communication open concerning the evil of some people online. kevin, i will begin with you. horrific is not even an adequate word to describe this case. i adequate word to describe this case. ., �* ~ ., , adequate word to describe this case. ., �* ~ . y ., adequate word to describe this case. ., �* a. y ., , case. i don't think any of us really are — case. i don't think any of us really are able _ case. i don't think any of us really are ab

mccartney, who's 26, posed as a young girl in order to befriend girls on the instant messaging service snapchatbefore going on to blackmail them. the judge said mccartney had used social media on an industrial scale to inflict catastrophic damage. this report from chris page contains distressing details. cimarron thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. why? "why" was the biggest question. why? this was the sunday we took her home before her passing. she has bright red lipstick on, getting into that stage of her life, to be a teenager. she almost was. alexander mccartney was blackmailing cimarron. he had initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick cimarron into sending him explicit pictures of herself. he went through the same sickening routine with 3500 victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, the emergency services received this call. what happened? she fell? shot herself? yeah, get her to get rags, put pressure on

mccartney, who's 26, posed as a young girl, in order to befriend girls on messaging service snapchat artney had used social media on an industrial scale, to inflict catastrophic damage. this report from chris page contains distressing details. cimarron thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. why? "why" was the biggest question. why? this was the sunday we took her home before her passing. she has bright red lipstick on, getting into that stage of her life, to be a teenager. she almost was. alexander mccartney was blackmailing cimarron. he had initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick cimarron into sending him explicit pictures of herself. he went through the same sickening routine with 3,500 victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, the emergency services received this call from her nine—year—old sister. 18 months later, cimarron's father ben took his own life without knowing what had led to his daughter'

mccartney, who's 26, posed as a young girl, in order to befriend girls in 30 countries on the instant messaging service snapchaton to blackmail them. the judge said mccartney's crimes had scarred his victims' childhoods and that the details of his offending put the case on a par with murder. chris page reports. cimarron thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. why? victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, the emergency services received this call. 18 months later, cimarron�*s father ben took his own life without knowing what had led to his daughter's suicide. police and prosecutors on both sides of the atlantic worked to bring the manslaughter charge. mccartney targeted victims across the world over five years. he ordered some girls to film themselves abusing other children. you had little girls, sort of an average age of 10—12 years old many times, being threatened in the most depraved way. 18 months later, cimarron�*s father ben took his

mccartney, who's 26, posed as a girl, in order to befriend girls on the instant messaging service snapchating on to blackmail them. thejudge said mccartney had used social media on an industrial scale, to inflict catastrophic damage. chris page reports. cimarron thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. why? "why" was the biggest question. why? this was the sunday we took her home before her passing. she has bright red lipstick on, getting into that stage of her life, to be a teenager. she almost was. alexander mccartney was blackmailing cimarron. he had initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick cimarron into sending him explicit pictures of herself. he went through the same sickening routine with 3,500 victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, the emergency services received this call from her nine—year—old sister. what happened? she fell? shot herself? yeah, get her to get rags, put pressure on that, control t

mccartney, who's 26, posed as a young girl, in order to befriend girls on messaging service snapchat,em. the judge said mccartney had used social media on an industrial scale, to inflict catastrophic damage. this report from chris page contains distressing details. cimarron thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. why? "why" was the biggest question. why? this was the sunday we took her home before her passing. she has bright red lipstick on, getting into that stage of her life, to be a teenager. she almost was. alexander mccartney was blackmailing cimarron. he had initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick cimarron into sending him explicit pictures of herself. he went through the same sickening routine with 3,500 victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, the emergency services received this call from her nine—year—old sister. 18 months later, cimarron�*s father ben took his own life without knowing what h

we know alexander mccartney was involved in the severe sexual exploitation of young girls aged 10—16 on social media mostly snapchatial media company said... "the sexual exploitation of any person is horrific and illegal and our hearts go out to the victims in this case. if we discover this activity, or it is reported to us, we remove it, lock the violating account and report it to the authorities. "we have extra protections for teens to make it difficult for them to be contacted by strangers and we have expanded in—app notifications to ensure teens are in touch with people they trust. "through our in—app family centre parents can also see who their teens are talking to, and who their friends are." that statement from snapchat. if you've been affected by any of the issues raised... you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. if you're in the uk, you can find a list of organisations that can help at bbc.co.uk/actionline or go to befrienders.org if you live outside the uk. on thursday, more than 500 people arrived in the uk by crossing the channel on a small boat. it's the highes

young girl online in order to befriend girls on messaging services like snapchat before going to blackmail him. the judge said mccartneyd social media on an industrial scale to inflict catastrophic damage. the report from chris page contained distressing details. chris: simmer and thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abus who caused her death. >> why? why was the biggest question. this is the sunday we took her home before her passing. she had bright red lipstick on, getting into that stage of her life. she almost was. chris: alexander mccarty was blackmailing simran. he initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick her into sending him a solicit pictures of herself. he went through the same sickening routine with three and a half thousand victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried on acts of abuse for his sexual gratification. [phone ringing] three minutes after mccartney's last message to cimarron, emergency services receive this call. >> what happened? >> she felt. she shot herself. you need to get pressure on that and control the bleeding and secure the firearm. chris:

we heard in that report their that pretending to be a girl operating mainly on snapchat mccartney found from snapchat. the social media company said: "the sexual exploitation of any person is horrific and illegal "and our hearts go out to the victims in this case. "if we discover this activity, or it is reported to us, "we remove it, lock the violating account "and report it to the authorities. "we have extra protections for teens to make "it difficult for them to be contacted by strangers "and we have expanded in—app notifications "to ensure teens are in touch with people they trust. "through our in—app family centre parents can also see who their teens are talking to, and who their friends are." that, a statement from snapchat that has been issued by the company here. we have nowjust read that out too because that is of course one of the ways that alexander was contacting children, young girls, children. reviewersjoining us, i will remind viewers that this is a difficult case that we have just had that sentence within the past few moments and that this is a difficult case with a lot o

mccartney perfected my friend on snapchat. he reached out to as many friends as you could.th her. my daughter believe that she was talking to a female not a male. it got a point where he requested a nude from her. she sent it through and he used that to manipulate and blackmail her into sending more photos. it ended up including our youngest daughter as well. in time, he went through the contacts list and he added my daughter's cousin as well who was like 17 years old at the time. he then tried to threaten her with getting more photos. thankfully, she was mature enough and smart enough to reach out to my wife and we went straight to the police. it is obviously all snowballed from there. it's happened within minutes. as soon as it was sent a sequence of events was in motion. it could never be undone. he had offered he honed his craft over a significant period of time. as soon as you have a power, she was playing by his rules. they were ten and 12 at the time, 17 and soon to be 19. our youngest daughter has no idea what happened. she ended up doing photos as well. obviously,