The online bully who caused a 12-year-old girl to kill herself was given a life sentence.
A Northern Ireland man was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for mass online harassment and blackmail of young girls. One such case led to the suicide of a 12-year-old American girl and her father.
A man was sentenced to life imprisonment in Northern Ireland for massive online harassment of young girls, reports MTI. Belfast Crown Court heard the 26-year-old computer science student harassed his victims from the bedroom of his home via messaging services such as Snapchat and Instagram.
He lied to his victims that he was a teenage girl of a similar age and got them to send indecent images of themselves or record sexual activity using a webcam or mobile phone. The perpetrator later shared the videos with others and used them to threaten his victims.
In addition, the perpetrator preferred to assume the identity of girls who had fallen victim to him in the past. There were also cases when he forced girls to include their younger brothers in the bullying,
the youngest victim was thus three years old.
The man was charged in connection with 70 victims. The victims are from countries such as the UK, US, Ireland and Australia. According to the Northern Ireland police, this is a fraction of the approximately 3,500 victims whom the perpetrator harassed in approximately 30 countries.
His crime took on industrial proportions. His depravity knew no bounds
- emphasized Eamonn Corrigan, Northern Ireland's chief police officer, after the sentencing.
According to the police, one of the man's victims was 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas from the United States. In 2018, the girl committed suicide with her father's gun while she was in an online relationship with the convict. Following what happened, the girl's father also ended his life with his own hands.
We will never forgive and never forget what this predator did
emphasized the father of one of the New Zealand victims.
Judge John O'Hara said the "sadistic and depraved" criminal could not be released until 2039 at the earliest. The man pleaded guilty to all charges. According to the police report, 64 devices with hundreds of thousands of images and videos were seized during the investigation, including the man's fake digital accounts.
Featured image: Illustration / Ulrike Mai / Pixabay