Alexander Mc Cartney, 26, had admitted to 185 charges including blackmail, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and producing and distributing indecent images of children.
Mc Cartney was told he would spend at least 20 years in jail after a number of other sentences that he will serve concurrently were taken into account.
In one of the biggest investigations into catfishing, or sexual extortion, in the world, police found victims aged between 10 and 16 in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Prosecutors said he had targeted about 3,500 children.
Mc Cartney, who posed as a young girl to befriend girls on Snapchat before blackmailing them, is believed to be the UKJs most prolific such offender.
Sitting at Belfast crown court, Justice OJHara said: "In my judgment, it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant.
"There has not been a case such as the present where the defendant has used social media on an industrial scale to inflict such terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls, up to and including the death of a 12-year-old girl. The defendant was remorseless."
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Denne historien er fra October 26, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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