Hacker penetrated MoD: Conspiracy trial ends in 'surprise' acquittal

THE TEENAGE hacker acquitted yesterday of conspiracy charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 gained access to Ministry of Defence computers holding confidential data.

The Independent has learnt that one reason for bringing the charges against Paul Bedworth, aged 19, was concern over his attempts to access secret electronic intelligence gathering at a US base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, and US Navy computers.

About the same time, Ministry of Defence computers were also 'attacked', although the authorities refuse to discuss this or even admit it took place.

One of the many print-outs obtained by West Yorkshire police and Scotland Yard's Computer Crimes Unit shows the names of individuals at the US base in North Yorkshire, although there is no reason to believe that the computer was accessed fully.

The print-outs show confidential telephone numbers and information about the US network and missile bases linked to the US Army.

That evidence was not put before the court in what the defence described as 'a show trial', because the authorities felt issues of national security outweighed public interest.

Mr Bedworth was arrested on the same night in June 1991 as two other hackers. Karl Strickland, 22, from Liverpool, and Neil Woods, 26, from Oldham, admitted similar conspiracy charges but have yet to be sentenced.

Police officers involved said they were 'surprised' by yesterday's verdict. The Computer Crimes Unit was eager to prosecute this first major trial under the new legislation.

Mr Bedworth beamed at the verdict, reached after an hour and a half of deliberation. The shy, almost reclusive teenager will take a short break in his home town of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, before returning to his computer science studies at Edinburgh University.

He began hacking at 14, using a pounds 200 BBC microcomputer bought by his mother and was a very gifted boy, with a vast knowledge of computing, the court was told. One expert witness for the Crown asked, only half in jest, if they would mind if he offered Mr Bedworth a job after the trial.

The defence did not dispute any facts. Mr Bedworth admitted having hacked into a large number of computers, including systems at the Financial Times, a major cancer research centre in Brussels and the European Commission in Luxembourg.

Its central plank during the 16-day trial at Southwark Crown Court was that Mr Bedworth's compulsive obsession with computing overrode his ability to form the 'guilty mind', or intent, necessary to convict him.

The jury acquitted Mr Bedworth of conspiracy dishonestly to obtain telecommunications services, conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computer material and conspiracy to secure unauthorised access to computer material.

Mr Bedworth said afterwards: 'I don't need to do hacking anymore, I've got other things to pursue at university.'

Life in the twilight zone, page 4

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