No jail for teenager who sent bomb hoax tweets to airlines

He targeted government and pro-hunting sites in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America from the laptop in his bedroom at home in Plympton, near Plymouth, Devon.

Devon and Cornwall Police was affected for 44 minutes after the distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), while his actions cost SeaWorld almost US$600,000.

The boy admitted three offences under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act, relating to the DDoS attacks, and was convicted of two charges under Section 51 of the Criminal Law Act.

These related to bomb hoaxes he sent through Twitter to American Airlines, the White House and Delta Air Lines on February 13 last year.

District Judge Diane Baker told the boy, who sat next to his mother at Plymouth Youth Court, that she had been minded to sentence him to a 12-month detention and training order.

She instead handed him a two-year youth rehabilitation order, along with 120 hours reparation and to attend courses, after deciding that custody would "destroy" him.

"Your offending, in my mind, crosses the custody threshold - I say that because the offending involved significant planning," the judge said.

"The DDoS attacks were sophisticated. On your own admission you became a person to whom others came for advice on how to carry them out.

"With the bomb hoaxes, again, a significant level of planning - in particular sophistication in ensuring that your actions were not traced.

"These were a whole series of offences over a period of time. There's no doubt that you knew what you were doing. You knew it was serious.

"I don't think there would be any positive outcome for you going into a youth detention centre - I think it would destroy you.

"If it would destroy you how could I come to the conclusion that I am concerned with your welfare and rehabilitation as well as punishment?"

The boy's mother was ordered to pay £620 in prosecution costs.

"You have put your family through hell during this period of time," the judge told the teenager, adding that his laptop will now be destroyed.

"I have to say I think it is very unhealthy that a young man of this age spends so much time alone on the computer.

"I don't think there's anything that Mum could have done in the circumstances because she had absolutely no idea at the involvement he had."

The boy committed DDoS attacks on 10 websites between November 2014 and January 2015.

These included the Republic of Iraq Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards in Thailand in January 2014.

The Ministry of Public Security, the principal police and security authority of the People's Republic of China, was attacked in September 2014.

A site for Taiji in Japan, where a dolphin hunt takes place each year, was hit by the teenager in November 2014, as well as international hunting sites.

Ben Samples, prosecuting, said SeaWorld received threats and DDoS attacks on 11 of its websites on numerous occasions between November and December 2014.

One attack caused three hours of disruption, while another resulted in the site being impaired for almost three days.

The teenager then posted on Twitter: "... manning the servers up and firing again @SeaWorld you won't see the end of this".

SeaWorld put the direct cost of the attacks at $465,000, with the annual cost of protecting its system from them at $128,472.

In January 2015, the boy attacked Devon and Cornwall Police's website after being stopped by an officer and taking offence to it.

He took a screenshot showing the site was down and posted it on Twitter with the caption: "fecking pigs #tangodown" - a reference to video game Call Of Duty.

At 2.40am UK time on February 14 last year he tweeted Delta Air Lines: "There's a nice tick tick in one of those lovely Boeing planes. Hurry gents the clock is ticking."

He also tweeted American Airlines and the White House: "One of those lovely Boeing airplanes has a nice tick tick in it. Hurry gentlemen, the clock is ticking. High quality."

"The FBI were notified and the investigation was passed to the UK authorities," Mr Samples said.

"He was arrested on February 25 2015. Analysis of a laptop found at his address revealed conversations using Skype between him and another user.

"During the conversation on February 14 the boy described hacking as a hobby. He also discussed the possibility of hacking Snapchat and leaking nude images."

Mr Samples said the other user told the boy he could become famous and urged him to set up a Twitter account and send bomb threats to airlines from it.

The boy, who has no previous convictions, told the user: "Say like we are Isis, that will make it", later adding "If the police come through my door I'm f*****."

He then searched on Google for "charges for terroristic threats".

Mr Samples said the airlines investigated the threats but did not view them as credible.

Ken Papenfus, representing the boy, told the court: "What concerns me is how it was that such a young man effectively withdrew into his own bedroom and through this computer into his own little world.

"This was because his friends and his peer group at the time were, as they got older, getting involved in using drugs, using substances, getting into trouble with the police.

"None of this, rather ironically, appealed to him. That is what found him isolated with time on his hands and the computer. He comes from a good family who support him."

Mr Papenfus said the boy had become involved in DDoS attacks through meeting people online by playing video games.

"He just thought that everything he was doing was abstract - that it didn't impact on the real world," he added.

"He is someone who is intelligent, he is obviously very capable. He has experience that could be shared with other people and could be used positively."

The boy, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, told the court: "I just want to say that I am really sorry for everything that I have done.

"I didn't really know how serious it was. I am sorry to my family."

His school has offered to work with the boy to use his skills "positively and proactively and not illegally", the judge said.