LulzSec Hackers Ryan Mark Ackroyd And Teenager Charged

LulzSec Hackers Charged
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Two Britons were charged on Tuesday night with computer hacking for online activists LulzSec.

Ryan Mark Ackroyd, 25, of Oak Road, Mexborough, Doncaster, and a 17-year-old from south London were both told they will face court proceedings after answering bail at Scotland Yard.

They were charged as the FBI confirmed prosecutions relating to hacking group in court papers unsealed in New York.

The pair are accused of two counts of conspiracy to "do an unauthorised act with intent to impair or with recklessness impairing of an operation of a computer", the force said.

It takes the total number charged by British officers investigating LulzSec to four.

Ackroyd will appear on bail at Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 16 while the 17-year-old will appear at West London Youth Court on March 13.

Jake Davis, 18, and Ryan Cleary, 19, appeared in court last autumn accused of hacking into websites including that of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the charges were "completely separate" from the FBI's announcement about prosecutions across the Atlantic.

The American charges were laid out in court papers unsealed in federal court in New York as authorities said that a sixth person, Hector Xavier Monsegur, of New York, had already pleaded guilty.

In Ireland a suspect in his late teens - believed to be one of five men held over the operations of LulzSec - was taken in for questioning in south Dublin.

LulzSec is a spin-off of the loosely organised hacking collective Anonymous.

A spokesman for Irish police said the investigation was being run by the Garda Bureau for Fraud Investigation and officers were liaising with international counterparts.