Leader: British justice a laughing stock

Yesterday a teenage hacker was up in court for sentencing having been found guilty of serious cybercrimes - including a breach of US defence security.

Joseph James McElroy, 18, had hacked into a US nuclear facility which contained classified atomic weapons and research data. McElroy even sectioned off areas of the breached network and password protected them for his own use.

Given the already heightened levels of security and paranoia stateside, the US government, perhaps understandably, assumed this to be an act of terrorism.

This reaction was one which the presiding judge at Southwark Crown Court understood and one which he said he considered to be "very serious". He also stated that it was now time to send out a message that hacking and related criminal activities are not "a joke" or a "hobby". It was time, he said, to make it clear that such actions are criminal and, as such, the criminals perpetrating them should expect to face harsh custodial sentences.

At this point McElroy must have been fearing the worst. The judge was certainly talking the talk - and with that talk involving terrorism, nuclear weapons and custodial sentences this didn't look good for the teenager.

So what was the sentence handed down by Judge Goymer? A staggering 200 hours community service.

McElroy was probably not the only one taken aback by the leniency of the sentence. But the benevolent Judge Goymer hadn't finished there. He even waived claims for compensation from the US government, claiming McElroy was a poor student, who had already amassed debts of £3,000 at university in Exeter and wouldn't be able to afford it.

So McElroy escapes with his community service order and nothing more by way of punishment - not even any order limiting his use of computers.

This past week we have seen the fastest spreading computer virus of all time in the form of MyDoom. Often such incidents originate from an anonymous hacker or virus writer who is never unearthed and escapes unpunished.

The fact therefore that when caught these individuals are escaping with sentences that amount to little more than a welcome way to fill up a few otherwise wasted hours at Uni is laughable.

This latest instance shows how behind the times the UK courts are, with judges who know little of what they are dealing with and a system ill-equipped to punish individuals when they are caught.