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From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: COMPUTER ADDICTION (New motto?)
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 19:56:54 GMT

franklig@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Gregory C Franklin ) writes: >Found in comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc....
>>In article <1993Apr8.055122.3495@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au> c9111400@frey.newcastle.edu.au (Matthew Flanagan) writes:
>>>Did anyone hear of a news item about a boy in England who was brought
>>>up on hacking charges but pleaded not guilty because he claimed that
>>>he was not responsible for his actions due to his severe addiction to
>>>computers?
>
>A good motto, don't y'all agree? P.S. I hope to hell this "boy in
>England" isn't Craig Shergold.

The case they are thinking of may be this Mitnick guy. Not British. A contemporary account of the case follows:

|Date: 18 Jul 89 08:49:34 PDT (Tuesday) |From: Rodney Hoffman <Hoffman.ElSegundo@Xerox.com| |Subject: Mitnick sentenced as an addict |
|Kevin Mitnick is the hacker once called "as dangerous with a keyboard as a bank |robber with a gun."
|
|His first plea bargain was rejected by U.S. District Judge Mariana R. |Pfaelzer as too lenient. He subsequently reached a new agreement, with no |agreed-upon prison sentence, in which pleaded guilty to stealing a DEC |security program and illegal possession of 16 long-distance telephone codes |belonging to MCI Telecommunications Corp. If convicted of all counts, |Mitnick faced a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $750,000. |
|According to a story by Henry Weinstein in the 18 July 1989 'Los Angeles |Times', Judge Pfaelzer said Monday that she will sentence Mitnick to a year |in a rehabilitation center, where he can be treated for his "addiction." |It is believed to be the first time a person indicted for a computer |hacking - related crime will be treated as an addict. |
|Harriet Rossetto, the director of the rehabilitation center said that |Mitnick would benefit from the program. She said that Mitnick's "hacking |gives a sense of self-esteem he doesn't get in the real world.... This is a |new and growing addiction . There was no greed involved. There was no |sabotage involved.... He's like a kid playing Dungeons and Dragons." |
|Asst. U.S. Attorney James R. Asperger told Pfaelzer that he was amenable to |the rehabilitation plan, in part because Mitnick has cooperated extensively |with the government in its case against DiCicco, Mitnick's one-time friend |who turned him in. Asperger said that Mitnick had turned out to be |considerably less harmful than the government had originally thought, |particularly since he not broken into DEC's computer system out of malice |or to make money.
|
|Judge Pfaelzer said she will rule today on whether Mitnick should serve any |additional prison time, beyond the seven months he has so far spent in |federal custody. DiCicco still faces one federal charge of illegally |transporting a stolen program (!).

Sounds like an interesting starting point for the AFU legal staff.

I like the D&D analogy by the judge.

Jon "T." Papai