NI campaign to combat rise in online sex offences against children
More than 2,000 sexual offences against children were recorded in the north last year; 187 related to grooming and sexual communication, according to the PSNI.
The PSNI and the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland want to raise awareness of the dangers for children online with a social media campaign called 'Trust Trap'.
Last year, the BBC aired a documentary series called 'Teen Predator/Online Killer' about Alexander McCartney from Newry, who was the subject of one of the largest investigations in the world into the sexual extortion of children.
This case led to the death of a 12-year-old girl in America who took her own life after being targeted and abused by McCartney.
Clips from this series have now been made available for a social media campaign to raise awareness to more young people about how these predators are operating in online spaces and to encourage more victims to report.
Prosecutors in Northern Ireland who worked on the McCartney case described the case as the largest, most complex and depraved investigation into sexual offences they had ever worked on.
It is highly likely that more than 70 victims were targeted by McCartney but police have not been able to identify them - so the harm he caused is unquantifiable.
McCartney was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for the manslaughter of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas and more than 180 other offences relating to child abuse.
The PSNI said online sexual offences against children are becoming an increasing crime type in Northern Ireland.
In a statement, they said: "There were 2,187 sexual offences against children recorded in 2024, 187 of which relate to grooming and sexual communication with a child.
"799 offences relating to taking, possessing, sharing or publishing indecent images of children were reported in 2024.
"In 2024, 120 searches were carried out relating to tens of thousands of indecent images of children and thousands of devices were seized.
"As a result of these searches, they made 43 arrests."
In another case, Max Hollingsbee from Lurgan in Co Armagh was sentenced in May for a litany of online sex offences against underage girls.
One of his victims has explained why she supports the new PSNI campaign.
Immy (not her real name) said: "I think more young people should know that not everyone online is who they say they are.
"What happened to me should never happen to you, but if it does - speak out. The police can and will help you. As a child or teenager, you're not going to be thinking rationally in that situation. I wasn't.
"A trusted adult or the police will know what to do to keep you safe. I have been to therapy and am taking steps to tackle my anxiety. I start university soon. It does get better."
A PSNI statement said: "Groomers like McCartney and Hollingsbee operate in a very similar way, concealing their identity online, pretending to be the same age as a child.
"They use fake profile pictures, pretending to have similar interests to gain the trust of the child before steering the conversation to a sexual nature.
"Once trust in established, they use power and control to make, force, blackmail, guilt or trick a child into doing what the groomer wants.
"They may persuade a child to take part in online sexual activity, including sharing explicit images and videos and livestreaming sexual acts."
It added: "It is a crime for anyone to possess, make, distribute or show anyone an indecent image of a child under 18 years of age.
"This offence can be committed by an adult or a child. It is also a crime for an adult to send a sexually explicit image of themselves to a child.
"We have specialist detectives within the Child Internet Protection Team who are dedicated to robustly investigating those who contribute to the cycle of child abuse and bringing those responsible before the courts.
"We use specialist technology to examine digital devices and trace any digital interaction right back to the person, making it difficult for offenders to hide evidence from us.
"If a person is downloading, viewing or making indecent images of children, you are leaving a digital footprint and we are actively looking for you."
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