Students who hacked FG election website avoid jail

Two students, who hacked Fine Gael’s 2011 election website, have been spared jail sentences and left with clean records.

Darren Martyn, aged 21, from Cloonbeggin, Claregalway, Galway, and 20-year-old Donnacha Ó Cearbhaill from The Ring, Birr, Co Offaly, were the first to be successfully prosecuted in Ireland for computer hacking.

The hi-tech whizzkids, who used the online aliases “Raepsauce” and “Palladium”, had been identified by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation in conjunction with the FBI, Dublin District Court had heard.