Pad and Gandalf believed some of the material seized
in the police raids would substantially help their case--such as
messages from admins thanking them for pointing out security holes on
their systems. This material had not been included in the
prosecution's brief. When the defendants requested access to it, they
were refused access on the grounds that there was classified data on
the optical disk. They were told to go read the Attorney-General's
guidelines on disclosure of information. The evidence of the hackers'
forays into military and government systems was jumbled in with their
intrusions into computers such as benign JANET systems, the defence
team was told. It would take too much time to separate the two.
Eventually, after some wrangling, Pad and Gandalf were told they could
inspect and copy material--provided it was done under the supervision
of the police. The hackers travelled to London, to Holborn police
station, to gather supporting evidence for their case. However, it
soon became clear that this time-consuming exercise would be
impossible to manage on an ongoing basis. Finally, the Crown
Prosecution Service relented, agreeing to release the material on disk
to Pad's solicitor, on the proviso that no copies were made, it did
not leave the law office, and it was returned at the end of the trial.
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