*A SCOTS* entrepreneur has pledged £100,000 to help finance the defence of
Gary McKinnon in the event he is extradited to the United States.Edinburgh-based venture capital investor Luke Heron, right, is calling on
other Scottish businesses and the "celebrity bandwagon" to help build up an
emergency defence fund for the Glasgow-born computer expert, who faces
charges of hacking into 97 US military computers between 2001 and 2002.
"I hope my money never needs to be used, I hope it never comes to that,"
Heron, 30, told the Sunday Herald. "But the reality is McKinnon now lost
another appeal and people need to face up to the fact that it's looking
increasingly likely he's going to go over there and a US legal case is going
to cost in the millions."
advertisement
McKinnon's plight has become something of a cause celebre in recent years,
with everyone from Boris Johnson to Terry Waite, Sting and Jane Asher
speaking out against moves to force the autistic Scot to stand trial in the
US.
On Friday, David Cameron described him as a "vulnerable young man", whose
case raised "serious questions about the workings of the Extradition Act,
which should be reviewed".
Heron said: "I just felt this was something tangible that I could do It's
very easy to join a list of people saying, This shouldn't happen', but they
have far more clout and far more money than I can ever dream of having.
"The best thing that can happen for Gary is that the next chapter in the
media story needs to be about money. The US keep saying how much damage he
is supposed to have caused $700,000, which is about £418,000.
"If that is their biggest problem, I genuinely would write a cheque for it
now, if it would close the matter." A one-time university dropout who puts
his success down to "getting lucky a couple of times", Heron was partly
inspired to offer financial backing to McKinnon based on his own experiences
working with an autistic boy during his eight months as a student in St
Andrews.
While undertaking a course in Medieval History at the university, he began
volunteering and became involved with a family in Cupar whose son had
Asperger's syndrome - the same condition that McKinnon was diagnosed with
last year.
"One of the greatest regrets of my life is, firstly, cutting off my
university career, but also feeling that I had completely and utterly let
down their child, although they had many other people to help," said Heron.
"This is not about putting right a wrong, I think Gary's case is completely
unique, but that is my only connection, and an all too brief involvement,
with someone with autism."
McKinnon, 43, lost the latest in a long line of legal battles to prevent his
extradition to the US, when the High Court on Friday rejected calls for a
judicial review. Although his only contact with the McKinnon family so far
has been via their lawyer, Heron is aware that his message of support "has
been passed on".
He hopes that the "ridiculous" situation might be averted if the US
authorities take into account the inevitable "media storm" that McKinnon's
extradition would spark - and is banking on a change of heart under the
Obama administration.
"The Extradition Treaty was never intended for this purpose," he said. "I
think the US has presented Gary as some terrible criminal who is intent on
bringing down the United States military, which is just complete and utter
fantasy."
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2523452.0.0.php