A schoolboy from Devon has been told he could face a custodial sentence for launching cyber-attacks on websites as part of a campaign for animal rights, and tweeting bomb hoaxes to US airlines.
The boy, who was 14 and 15 at the time of the offences, targeted SeaWorld Orlando in Florida and a town in Japan where dolphin hunting takes place. He said he had long supported animal rights causes but also wanted to be seen as “cool” and attract more social media followers.
The boy, who is now 16, accepted he had attacked the websites of SeaWorld, the Japanese town and Devon and Cornwall police, but denied sending bomb hoaxes to American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. He was found guilty of these offences by a judge at Plymouth youth court.
Explaining her verdict, district judge Diana Baker said the boy, who cannot be named, had admitted all the charges in a police interview but told the detective who spoke to him: “Don’t tell Mum.”
In court the teenager claimed the bomb threats had been sent by someone else he knew only as “Whitehat”.
The judge said: “Even if I do not take in account your admissions, I am sure that it was you personally, on the encouragement of Whitehat, who sent both bomb hoax messages. You did so knowing how serious such actions would be. The planning involved was both detailed and sophisticated.”
The district judge told the youth, who was with his mother in court and has no previous convictions, that he must cooperate with the probation service before she sentences him later this month.
She told him he was clever and the offences could result in custody, and asked his mother to “keep a close eye on him” in the “stressful” weeks before he is sentenced.
Outside court, Ben Samples, senior crown prosecutor for the south-west, said: “The defendant knew what he was doing was wrong and deliberately targeted a number of websites, causing them to crash temporarily.
“One of those websites was that of Devon and Cornwall police, making it much harder for the public to access the help and support they needed.
“I hope this will send a message to anyone who thinks they can hide online or use social media to create a climate of fear that they will have to face the consequences of their actions.”
The attacks on the websites related to distributed denial of service attacks, which involve overwhelming a website with traffic, often taking it offline.
Samples told the court that the teenager tweeted bomb hoaxes to two US airlines on 13 February 2015. The tweets read: “One of those lovely Boeing airplanes has a nice tick tick tick. Hurry gentleman the clock is ticking.”
The airlines decided there was no credible threat but the FBI was alerted and it referred the matter to the UK authorities.
British police traced the boy to his home in Plymouth and his laptop was seized from his bedroom, the court heard.
Giving evidence, the boy said he carried out cyber-attacks because he supported animal rights. He said he communicated with hackers but claimed he was just “messing around”.
Denying the plane bomb hoaxes, he said: “I feel like I have been stitched up by I don’t know who. I don’t know why they have done this to me.”
Asked by his lawyer, Ken Papenfus, what his general view was of bomb hoaxes, he replied: “It is a really easy way of getting into trouble. It just scares people like something is going to happen when it is not.”
