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Hacker McKinnon to learn whether he can appeal against extradition
8 Oct 2009Hacker Gary McKinnon is set to hear today whether he will be allowed to appeal to the Supreme Court against his extradition to the US on charges of breaking into the Pentagon's computer systems.
His mother last night accused the Government of "throwing their people to the dogs".
Janis Sharp said her son had been "suicidal" since learning of his extradition after hacking into military networks.
Mr McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, had only been looking for UFOs, she said.
At a fringe meeting of the Conservative party conference in Manchester, chaired by the National Autistic Society, Ms Sharp said: "When we vote someone in to protect our rights, we don't expect this to happen.
"French stand up for the French, Americans stand up for Americans.
"British people throw their people to the dogs; they don't stand up for us any more."
Ms Sharp said autistic people were "honest to the core" and her son had immediately admitted to police, without a lawyer present, that he had hacked into US systems.
"We are the only country in the world that will extradite our own people with no evidence whatsoever," she told the meeting.
"Because of Gary's naivety, had he been a bit more worldly-wise and denied everything, we wouldn't be in this situation now."
Mr McKinnon was "silly enough" to leave cyber-notes on the system saying "your security is horrendous", his mother said.
She added: "So I think he embarrassed them. He also left silly messages. But he shouldn't have done.
"And obviously he should be tried here. But he certainly shouldn't be extradited.
"I've always believed in honesty but I would say if you have an autistic or vulnerable child, don't tell them to admit anything - deny everything.
"Because instead of respecting the fact that you're honest and you're telling the truth, they will destroy you."
By signing the US-UK extradition treaty, Britain had "signed away" the rights of British citizens, particularly vulnerable people.
Ms Sharp said: "Gary was suicidal - he doesn't open up and tell us his feelings; we found this out from someone else."
Tory David Burrowes, Mr McKinnon's MP and shadow justice minister, said Home Secretary Alan Johnson had repeatedly "passed the buck" and refused to act on the situation.
He told the fringe meeting: "So inevitably we've been left with the court process, to go through the process of judicial review, hopefully through to the Supreme Court.
"What we do need is to have justice in this country."
In July Mr McKinnon failed in his High Court bid to avoid extradition.
Today, he is expected to learn whether the High Court has given him permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against his extradition.
Reader views (7)
All of his mother's comments are correct. Of course he should be allowed to stand trial in this Country.
I hope it does go to the European Courts as they have far more common sense than we, or the Americans seem to have.
- Susan Balfour, Eastbourne, 09/10/2009 12:34
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What has happened to this once great Country. Seems absolutely nobody wants to take any responsibility for their actions.
No wonder everyone seems to do as they please.
We could learn a lot from America where they actually treat criminals as CRIMINALS!
- Stephen Floyd, Evesham, 08/10/2009 19:40
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Good grief, is this still going on? Same tired arguments. Same nonsense about 'degree of culpability'. Simple questions - did they guy know what he was doing? YES. Did he know it was illegal. YES. "Stupidly thinking it wouldn't matter" is not, and never has been an excuse for breaking laws. The man is not a drooling idiot as has been clearly demonstrated - yet people are still making him out to be a helpless childlike innocent in all this. Are people giving knee-jerk support just to air their anti-USA anything sentiments? Oh yeah!
- Rogan, Irving, 08/10/2009 15:40
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Again, he's not a hacker, he used the default admin passwords to access the system, he didn't "hack" anything, it would be the equivalent of walking into MI5 unchallenged and having a look around because they'd forgotten to employ security staff. Yes, it's a crime but realistically if you leave the doors wide open then you get what you deserve and don’t really have a right to blame others for your cockup.
- Bob, Cheam, 08/10/2009 11:56
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Looking for UFO's my a**e! Does he think we're as stupid as him?
It's as if he doesn't realise the seriousness of his actions.
- Nowan King, London, 08/10/2009 10:35
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Americans throwing their weight around in places where the have no right to do so.
It is true we Labour has sacrificed this nation as just another state of America in terms of appeasement and another state of Europe as interference in the nations culture.
Clearly we no longer have any identity and do not deserve a British passport and the Conservatives will do nothing to rectify this situation.
- Julie, Essex, 08/10/2009 10:22
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This disgusts me. First, what he did, and this has been well documented, is access Windows PC's owned by the military that had remote access enabled. If you're not technical, let me paint it in different terms. You would expect some grudging respect for a thief who managed to break into the Tower of London and steal the crown jewels. What Garry did was more akin to looking through the rubbish outside and finding a crown or two.
You see he's not a master techno genius, he did something any 10 year old could do, and the American military is embarrassed.
His actions weren't necessarily even illegal, depending on whether he was presented with a clear warning that he was accessing a computer to which he had no right of access. And even if it was shown to be illegal, they only caught him because he LEFT NOTES ON THE COMPUTERS to let the users know they were not secure.
Yeah, he's the pink panther alright, a real danger to the free world...
- Ian, london, 08/10/2009 10:21
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