By day five it labelled him as a `computer invader' who `cost
FT [sterling]25000'.
The list went on. Wandii, the press announced, had hacked the Tokyo
Zoo and the White House. It was difficult to tell which was the more
serious offence.
Wandii's defence team had a few tricks of its own. Ian MacDonald, QC,
junior counsel Alistair Kelman and solicitor Deborah Tripley put
London University Professor James Griffith-Edwards, an authoritative
spokesman on addictive and compulsive behaviours, on the stand as an
expert witness. The chairman of the National Addiction Centre, the
professor had been part of a team which wrote the World Health
Organisation's definition of addiction. No-one was going to question
his qualifications.
The professor had examined Wandii and he announced his conclusion to
the court: Wandii was obsessed by computers, he was unable to stop
using them, and his infatuation made it impossible for him to choose
freely. `He repeated 12 times in police interviews, "I'm just
addicted. I wish I wasn't",' Griffith-Edwards told the court. Wandii
was highly intelligent, but was unable to escape from the urge to beat
computers' security systems at their own game.
Pages:
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461