Gary McKinnon loses latest appeal

Gary McKinnon, the hacker accused of accessing nearly 100 US government computers from his home in North London, has had his latest judicial appeal against extradition denied in the High Court this morning.

In what is almost certainly his final chance to fend off the American attempts to put him on trial in the US, two judges have heard arguments that McKinnon's Asperger's Syndrome make it too dangerous to allow him to be tried in the US, and that proper consideration hasn't been taken of this.

If his defence team is unsuccessful in asking for a further appeal and McKinnon is extradited, he faces up to 70 years in gaol if found guilty in an American court. If he avoids this, he has said he wants to be tried in the UK.

The US authorities claim that he caused $800,000 worth of malicious damage. McKinnon denies this, saying instead that he was looking for suppressed evidence of UFOs.