A prolific sex offender arrested by police was able to carry on offending while on bail, leading to the death of a 12-year-old girl, according to a report from Northern Ireland's Office of the Police Ombudsman.
Alexander McCartney, from Newry, Co Down, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for more than 100 crimes, including unlawful act manslaughter.
He was able to continue contacting children online while on bail due to staff shortages in police investigation teams and ineffective bail conditions.
The so-called catfish offender posed as someone else online to trick children into sending him indecent images, which he then used to blackmail them.
A 12-year-old American girl, Cimarron Thomas, took her own life in May 2018 following contact with him.
Her father Benjamin Jay Thomas also took his own life less than two years later.
His widow Stephanie is adamant that both deaths were the direct result of McCartney's offending.
McCartney had first been arrested two years previously in 2016 after 1,100 indecent images were found on a number of devices in his possession.
He was 17 at the time and released on bail.
But delays in producing evidential reports on the devices meant that it was two years and three months before he was interviewed about them again.
Cimarron Thomas died five days before that police interview.
Following concerns about delays in the PSNI investigation, the Chief Constable asked Northern Ireland's Office of the Police Ombudsman to investigate.
It has now found that there were significant staffing shortages in the unit tasked with investigating McCartney's offences and reviewing devices.
This happened at a time when the number of devices being seized for analysis in relation to suspected child abuse was growing.
In 2018, the PSNI's Cybercrime Unit, staffed by 60 officers, were sent 935 computers and 284 mobile phones for analysis.
No additional resources were directed to the unit to reduce investigative delays. It also prioritised cases of terrorism and serious crime.
"When the initial devices were seized from McCartney in 2016, the officer responsible for investigating his online offending was part of a team that, due to absences and other factors, had only five officers in post against the compliment of 14 that it was supposed to have," the report said.
"This resulted in delays in the investigation and potential prosecution of those whose activities pose such a risk to children and young people, and opportunities to proactively follow evidence to identify where indecent images of children were being shared were missed.
"Consequently, the PSNI's ability to identify other offenders, frustrate sharing forums and ultimately protect children and young people were compromised."
Around the time of Cimarron Thomas' death, evidence of McCartney's continued offending while on bail, involving at least seven other children, was coming to light.
He had tricked a girl in Scotland into sending him an indecent image, and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children also advised that indecent images were being uploaded from McCartney's home IP address.
He was also found to have been in contact with a 14-year-old girl in Los Angeles who sent him images of self-harm.
Arrested again around this time, he was found to have eight further digital devices in his possession.
Read more:
How online abuser destroyed US girl's life from his Armagh bedroom
McCartney 'deserves every minute in prison' - investigators
The Police Ombudsman also found issues with the bail conditions applied to McCartney after his first arrest in 2016.
He was ordered to live at home and to have no contact with children under 16, but the Police Ombudsman found only cursory checks were done to ensure compliance.
"As a result, his continued offending went completely unchecked during this time," the report said.
"The overstretched staff within the Child Internet Protection Team were unable to adequately, impose or manage meaningful bail conditions, such as restrictions around internet usage, due to unacceptable delays and excessive workloads."
It was only after another arrest in 2019 that a bail condition restricting his internet access was added.
He breached it, leading to him being remanded in custody.
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