A 58-year-old man from Wigan who hacked into hundreds of webcams in dozens of countries has avoided extradition to the US after a judge ruled that it was not in the interests of justice.
Christopher Taylor, a full-time carer for his wife of 38 years, had faced up to 20 years in a US prison after he was charged with wire fraud and two counts of computer fraud in Georgia.
But on Monday a judge at Westminster magistrates court blocked the extradition, ruling that because of Taylor’s strong family links in the UK, any prosecution for the offences should take place here.
District judge Michael Fanning also said that Taylor’s extradition would breach both his and his wife’s human rights, on the basis that disrupting his care for her would amount to a disproportionate interference with both of their Article 8 rights to a family life.
In an earlier hearing, Taylor and his wife had told Fanning they would take their own lives if he was extradited. The court also heard evidence that both were suffering from depression and that Taylor was autistic.
Taylor, who was said to be obsessed with computers, hacked into 772 webcams in 39 countries between August 2012 and July 2015. He had tricked victims into downloading software that gave him access to their computers, allowing him to install software that took control of their webcams.
He was caught after a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology downloaded the software to a laptop connected to the university’s computer network. Network administrators detected the breach and alerted the FBI. Investigators were able to trace Taylor’s IP address.
When Taylor was arrested by Greater Manchester police in February 2016, police officers found 770 images of victims stored on his hard drives, including of people naked and involved in sexual activity.
Defending Taylor, Ben Cooper QC told the court that cases such as his were precisely why the Extradition Act 2003 had been amended, after the case of Gary McKinnon, to allow the courts to block extradition for cases where prosecution is possible in the UK. The US had no more victims in the case than the UK and UK prosecutors had ample evidence to pursue a prosecution themselves, Cooper said.
“The stance of the US federal prosecutors serves no greater public interest than trying Mr Taylor in the UK, yet it would carry grave consequences for Mr Taylor and his family due to the precarious mental and physical health of Mr and Mrs Taylor,” Cooper said.
“The strength of Mr Taylor’s lifelong connection to the UK derives from his fundamental importance to his wife’s physical care and the mental support he provides her in coping with her disability and mental illness.”
