The lawyers could talk about it, could put experts on the stand and
psychological reports in the hands of the judge, but none of them
would ever really comprehend because they had never experienced it.
The rest of the courtroom was out of the loop, and Pad and Gandalf
stared out from the dock as if looking through a two-way mirror from a
secret, sealed room.
Pad's big worry had been this third charge--the one which he faced
alone. At his plea hearing, he had admitted to causing damage to a
system owned by what was, in 1990, called the Polytechnic of Central
London. He hadn't damaged the machine by, say, erasing files, but the
other side had claimed that the damages totalled about [sterling]250
000.
The hacker was sure there was zero chance the polytechnic had spent
anything near that amount. He had a reasonable idea of how long it
would take someone to clean up his intrusions. But if the prosecution
could convince a judge to accept that figure, the hacker might be
looking at a long prison term.
Pad had already braced himself for the possibility of prison. His
lawyer warned him before the sentencing date that there was a
reasonable likelihood the two 8lgm hackers would be sent down.
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