Court date set for two teenagers in hacking case

THE case of two teenagers accused of hacking into websites including that of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency was heard in court yesterday.

Jake Davis, 18, and Ryan Cleary, 19, were not at Southwark Crown Court in London for the short hearing, but it is understood to be the first time their cases have been grouped together.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said they will both need to appear for a plea and case management on 27 January next year.

Davis, from the Shetlands, was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s e-crime unit as part of an investigation into hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous.

He is said to use the online nickname “Topiary” and present himself as spokesman for the two groups. He faces five charges, including conspiring to carry out a distributed denial of service (DDos) attack on the police agency. Such attacks see websites flooded with traffic to make them crash.

Davis is also charged with gaining unauthorised access to a computer system, encouraging or assisting offences, and with two counts of conspiracy to commit offences.

LulzSec has also been linked to hacking attempts on the NHS, Sony, and the Sun newspaper.

At a hearing earlier this month, he was bailed to an address in Spalding, Lincolnshire, where his mother lives.

The judge imposed a curfew from 10pm to 7am, ordering him to be tagged.

He was also told he was not allowed to access the internet.

Cleary, from Wickford in Essex, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s since he was arrested on 20 June, is charged with conspiring to create a remotely-controlled network of zombie computers, known as a “botnet”, which crashes websites.

He is also alleged to have carried out attacks on Soca, the British Phonographic Industry’s website, and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s website, and with making, adapting or supplying a botnet for a DDos attack.