Gary ‘ready to face trial in UK’ after extradition triumph
GARY McKinnon is ready and willing to stand trial in Britain, his family said yesterday.
After the dramatic decision by Home Secretary Theresa May to block the computer hacker’s extradition to the US, the spotlight falls on Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer.
Mr Starmer must now decide whether Mr McKinnon can be charged in this country. Prosecutors are being encouraged by the US to bring the 46-year-old to justice in the UK.
Some supporters claim he has suffered enough already, by having spent ten years on bail, living under the shadow of extradition.
But his mother, Janis Sharp, said: ‘Our ten-year battle was to stop Gary being sent to stand trial in the United States. We have always said we wanted him to face justice in a British court. If he is charged, so be it.
‘After what Gary and my family have been through this is almost the least of our worries. We will deal with it. We are just delighted and overjoyed that Mrs May blocked his extradition.’
Asperger’s sufferer Mr McKinnon – who faced up to 60 years in a US prison for hacking into Nasa and Pentagon computers looking for evidence of the existence of alien life – was yesterday coming to terms with his reprieve alongside his family and girlfriend Lucy Clarke.
Mrs May stopped Mr McKinnon’s extradition on human rights grounds after medical reports showed he was very likely to try to kill himself if extradited.
The decision – a huge victory for the Mail’s Affront to British Justice campaign – was applauded by MPs and civil liberties groups. It is the first time a Home Secretary has blocked an extradition to the US under the hugely controversial Extradition Act 2003.
Mrs Sharp said yesterday: ‘This was the first morning we could wake up without this awful fear hanging over my family. Gary says he had forgotten what it feels like to be happy.
‘He’s still tense and it will take time but we now want to concentrate on helping Gary get his life back on to an even keel.’
The DPP provoked fury when he ruled in 2009 that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for Mr McKinnon to be tried in Britain, even though Mr McKinnon admitted hacking into the US computers from the bedroom of his North London flat.
If a UK prosecution does proceed, it would probably be under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, with a maximum sentence of five years.
The US expressed anger at Mrs May’s unilateral decision to halt extradition. It raised questions about whether the Americans – who hold the bulk of the evidence against Mr McKinnon – would cooperate in the legal process. However, officials say the diplomatic fall-out has been limited.
The US Department of Justice stressed: ‘Our extradition relationship with the United Kingdom remains strong, as is demonstrated by the extradition of five alleged terrorists from the United Kingdom just last week.’
David Cameron’s spokesman said the Prime Minister had not been in touch with the US authorities to discuss the McKinnon case.
Mr McKinnon’s lawyer Karen Todner said last night of Tuesday’s decision: ‘I believe the decision was a courageous one but it was also both legally and morally correct.
‘The medical evidence that I supplied to the Home Secretary was overwhelming and extremely powerful. It would have been astounding for her to ignore it.
‘I do not believe that this case sets any precedents. The medical evidence in Mr McKinnon’s case was, in my view, unique.
‘I hope that Mr McKinnon and his family will now be able to enjoy a modicum of normal life after enduring ten very difficult years.’