A 19-year-old accused of hacking the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency’s (Soca) website has been released on conditional bail.
Ryan Cleary, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome just days after his arrest on June 21, is now forced to observe a strict curfew between 2100 BST and 0700 BST and can only leave the house with one of his parents.
In addition, Cleary – like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – will be electronically tagged.
Finally, the 19-year-old has been told that he is forbidden to access the Internet or possess devices capable of going online.
Nevertheless, Karen Todner, who represents Cleary, said Ryan is very “relieved” to be granted bail “and to go home to his mum, cats” and books.
“Ryan has last week at court been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of high functioning autism… He will now be provided with the professional support that he needs. His obvious intelligence can now be channelled into a worthwhile pursuit… Ryan will not be making further statement for the time being.”
As TG Daily previously reported, Cleary’s arrest was linked by a number of publications to a series of cyber campaigns led by the enigmatic LulzSec, a group that successfully infiltrated websites administered by the CIA, US Senate and Sony.
However, Lulz Security – which recently disbanded – tweeted a slew of official statements (on June 21st) in an effort to clarify Cleary’s links to the group.
“Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that’s it… We use Ryan’s server, we also use Efnet, 2600, Rizon and AnonOps IRC servers. That doesn’t mean they’re all part of our group.
“Clearly the UK police are so desperate to catch us that they’ve gone and arrested someone who is, at best, mildly associated with us. Lame. Best watch out, they can’t get us, so they’re going after people they think might know us. Defend yourselves.”
Cleary’s case is due back at Southwark crown court for a “management” hearing on August 30th.
