Judgement Day

needed its system to run 24 hours a day, so surgeons could register patients. The centre's database was the focal point for pharmaceutical companies, doctors and research centres - all coordinating their efforts in fighting the disease.

For the media, the case was headline heaven. 'Teenage computer hacker "caused worldwide chaos"', the *Daily Tele-* *graph* screamed across page one. On page three, the *Daily Mail* jumped in with 'Teenage hacker "caused chaos for kicks"'. Even *The Times* waded into the fray. Smaller, regional newspapers pulled the story across the countryside to the far reaches of the British Isles. *The Herald* in Glasgow told its readers 'Teenage hacker "ran up £10000 telephone bill"'. Across the Irish Sea, the *Irish Times* caused a splash with its headline, 'Teenage hacker broke EC computer security'.

Also in the first week of the case, *The Guardian* announced Wandii had taken down the cancer centre database. By the time *The Independent* got hold of the story, Wandii hadn't just shut down the database, he had been reading the patients' most intimate medical details: 'Teenager "hacked into cancer patient files"'. Not to be outdone, on day four of the trial, the *Daily* *Mail* had christened Wandii as a 'computer genius'. By day five it labelled him as a 'computer invader' who 'cost FT £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 soli- citor 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 Organisa- tion'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,