Dom Post on Walker case

I blogged earlier in the week that I thought the discharge without conviction for undesirable as it sent out a message cyber crimes are not real crimes.

The Dom Post Editorial agrees today:

Wander into a university, take to its computers with an axe and you’re likely to have some tough questions to answer, a conviction on your record and somewhat dimmed employment prospects, The Dominion Post writes.

Do the same thing using zombie armies of computers unleashed in the vast hunting grounds of the Internet to turn vulnerable PCs into spam-spewing monsters, give yourself a cool name and you can expect to stroll out of court. You’ll have an unblemished record because a conviction would dim your bright career prospects, a pat on the head from the judge for your high level of skills, and job offers galore – including from the police who caught you.

Yep a double standard.

We can but wonder what would happen if the approach taken by Justice Judith Potter, who discharged Owen Thor Walker without conviction after he pleaded guilty to six serious cyber crimes, was taken up across the board.

Young scamps who convert cars could be sent out on the roads to help motorists who have misplaced their keys. Producers of high-grade cannabis could be redeployed into the horticulture industry. Those skilled in the arcane art of cooking up particularly potent batches of P could be dispatched to the universities to help teach chemistry courses. Those most successful in peddling it could share their marketing skills in the same way.

Walker is young and autistic, which were no doubt factors. However these should have been factors in sentencing not a total discharge without conviction.