US took 39 months to demand McKinnon's extradition
- Author:
- Ian Grant
- Posted:
- 15:30 19 Jan 2009
It took the US 39 months to ask for self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon's extradition for allegedly committing the greatest military hack in history.
Computer Weekly has obtained the statement McKinnon made to the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, in support of his lawyer's request for him to be tried in the UK
This is the full text of McKinnon's statement.
"On 19th March 2002 I was arrested at my home address in London and interviewed for offences under the Misuse Computer Act 1990. I was taken to Holloway police station where I was interviewed by DCs Donson and Brownless of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. I was interviewed in respect of unauthorised access to computers in the US. I was then released on bail until 9th October 2002 during which time discussions took place between the CPS and the US authorities. In September 2002 I was informed that I would not need to answer bail because the US would be seeking my extradition.
"It was not until June 2005, 39 months later and after my full admissions on arrest that I was arrested again pursuant to an extradition request. By the summer of 2005 my life had inevitably moved on considerably and I had assumed that the US and the UK had decided not to act on my admissions. It was a long time to wait with the threat of extradition hanging over me.
"All of my computer activity took place in my flat in London that I shared with my then partner, Tamsin. I was and am still not someone who travelled or travels outside of the UK. This is borne out by the fact that I did not have a passport at the time of my arrest. In fact my passport ran out in 1982 which shows how long I had not needed a passport for. This out of date passport has been retained by the police as a condition of my bail since June 2005. For more than 3 years and 6 months I have been required to sign on at my local police station, initially daily and subsequently once per week. In addition, despite computing being both my vocation and past time I have complied with a stringent condition to desist from accessing the internet at all. This is a draconian condition given the internet's pervasiveness in all spheres of daily life.
"Although I have not engaged in any computer hacking for a period of some 6 years and 9 months my livelihood has always been computer-related. For a number of years I worked in IT as a computer consultant. I worked as an installation engineer for a small company and for Alfrogen which was a contractor for the Ministry of Defence. I have worked as a high level IT consultant for JP Morgan and Rowe and Moore solicitors. I was paid as a top-rate taxpayer for this work and was successful in my job."
