Hack charge teenager 'has Asperger's'

A teenager accused of carrying out a hacking attack against the website of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, since his arrest, a court heard today.

Ryan Cleary, 19, of South Beech Avenue, Wickford, Essex, was granted bail today but prosecutors immediately objected, meaning that he will remain in custody until Monday when an appeal will be heard.

The case draws parallels with that of Gary McKinnon, who also has Asperger’s, and is fighting extradition to America over allegations of hacking into US military computers.

He admits breaking into systems including those of Nasa and the Pentagon but says he was seeking UFO evidence.

Today, district judge Nicholas Evans, sitting at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, heard that Cleary’s condition was diagnosed by a psychologist.

Cleary did not enter any plea to the five offences under the Criminal Law and Computer Misuse Act with which he is charged.

His bail appeal will be heard at Southwark Crown Court, where the case is also due for a plea and case management hearing on August 30.

Cleary was arrested at his family home on Monday as part of a Scotland Yard and FBI probe into LulzSec, a group which claims responsibility for hacking attempts on Soca, the US Senate and the CIA.

He is charged with conspiring with other people on or before June 20 to create a remotely controlled network of zombie computers, known as a “botnet”, to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, where websites are flooded with traffic to make them crash.

He is also alleged to have carried out similar attacks against the British Phonographic Industry’s website and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s website on or before June 20.

If he wins his bail appeal on Monday, he will be subject to the conditions that he will not have access to the internet and will not have in his possession any device which could access the internet.

The conditions also state that no device capable of accessing the internet can be within his home address, that he must live and sleep at that address, and that he must not leave his address other than in the company of his mother, Rita Cleary.