Richard Hogan: Why was Alex McCartney able to use Snapchat in his deplorable actions?

I don’t say that to scare parents, I say that so we all wake up to the fact that our children are being targeted in the most sinister way imaginable by these sick and deplorable individuals. They have always been among us. Unremarkable, quiet, shadowy people, you generally might not notice. Utter cowards, who prey on the most vulnerable in our society, children. 

Traditionally, their only avenue into our children’s lives was through organisations where children were active, or on the local square where our children played. So we warned them; Stranger/danger, don’t talk to any strange men, don’t go over to a car that asks for directions, don’t follow anyone who tells you they have puppies or sweets for you, and you certainly don’t take a lift with anyone other than your parents. 

All sound advice. But the internet and these social media platforms have quite literally brought the shadowy people, we so desperately tried to protect our children from, into their most private spaces. These people don’t have to join groups anymore or hang around dark street corners. Just one click and they are in our children’s world. And we have been supine, while this has happened in front of our eyes. I have been saying this for a long time; we are over protecting our children in the real world, while we let them off to roam around the internet free from supervision. 

The outcome of that phenomenon was evidenced last week as crime after terrible crime was revealed to the court. Incomprehensible levels of child abuse on an industrial scale was described at the hearing. We must wake up!

The term ‘catfishing’ doesn’t accurately capture the sadistic and depraved behaviour McCartney and his like are involved in. There is a programme on TV called ‘Catfish’ but it is generally about lonely people pretending to be young again so they can chat with other people. It’s all low level stuff. So when we hear the term ‘catfish’ we generally tend to think of that image, an old, inert, harmless person pretending to be young again to fill the void of loneliness. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. McCartney committed unspeakable acts of sadism on vulnerable children. In most cases he pretended to be a girl, once he got their confidence he asked for an image, and once he got that he revealed his true identity. Now he was free to do what he liked with these young victims. In some cases he got them to involve their younger siblings, in other cases their pets. 

Because of location settings on Snapchat (which he mainly used) he knew where some of his victims lived, he used this to threaten them with rape if they did not do what he wanted. When his victims pleaded with him to stop the torment and abuse he refused, in some cases children told him they were going to harm themselves if he didn’t stop, which he encouraged and in one unimaginable moment of horror a nine-year-old girl found her 12-year-old sister, Cimarron Thomas, shot dead after being online with McCartney. 

Cimarron’s father later died by suicide after losing interest in life. Cimarron’s tragic story is almost too much to comprehend, the damage immeasurable. McCartney had built an enterprise out of child predation, sharing the images he had received from abused children. What sentencing will those involved get? One of the most unsettling aspects of this cases, is the fact that most parents didn’t know their children had been abused until the police called to their house.

If there is any light in a case as heinous and disturbing as this, maybe it is that parents wake up from their slumber about what is happening online to their children, and become more involved in their child’s online activity. Don’t use the phone as a parenting tool, tell your child: "If someone tries to friend you do not accept it, if someone asks for an image please come to us about that, we will not take the phone off you, we will support you, and remember, if it seems too good to be true, it is! If someone has all the same likes as you and interests, they are more than likely not real." 

We need sophisticated digital literacy in schools as a matter of urgency. We also have to hold Snapchat and all the other social media platforms to account. We are in the age of AI. No child should be able to send an explicit image to another user. We have to force them to stop that. Who would have thought a predator would use an app designed to make children’s communication covert as a fertile playground for their sick desire? 

Is there any accountability on the apps part? When will our Government act to prevent another Alexander McCartney from reaching our children?

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