Hacker will not face local charges

AFP/London

British prosecutors said yesterday that Gary McKinnon, a hacker wanted in the US for breaking into military computer systems, will face no further criminal charges in Britain.

McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, had waged a 10-year legal battle against extradition to the US which finally ended in October when Britain said it would not extradite him because of a high risk he would attempt suicide.

Yesterday, Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said the 46-year-old would face no charges here because the chances of a successful conviction were “not high”. McKinnon had admitted accessing US government computers but claimed he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

He was arrested in London in 2002 for hacking into dozens of Pentagon and Nasa computers, leaving 300 machines at a naval air station immobilised just after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He could have faced up to 60 years in a US jail for the breaches, which the US says caused $800,000 (615,000 euros) worth of damage.