Gary McKinnon may serve hacking time in UK

It's looking more likely that Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the US to face hacking charges, but he may be able to serve his sentence in the UK.

Following a court's decision last week to not prevent his extradition to the US on hacking charges, several high profile leaders have added their names to his list of supporters.

While Home Secretary Alan Johnson said it would be illegal for a government minister to prevent the extradition, a fellow Labour leader said he may serve his time back home.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman suggested McKinnon may be tried in the US, but brought back to the UK to serve his sentence.

"If he is found guilty, then obviously straight away we will seek for him to serve any prison sentence if he is sentenced to prison back in this country," she told the BBC.

Other politicians lined up to support the hacker. Former cabinet minister Peter Hain - also a Labour member - told the Daily Mail he had sympathy for McKinnon.

"After all he was sitting in his bedroom by his computer, as a kind of computer geek zapping the American defence system, and therefore he was committing an offence on British soil."

London Mayor Boris Johnson echoed IT PRO readers with his belief the admitted hacker should be offered a job, not a jail sentence.

"The Americans shouldn't be threatening him with jail. They should be offering him consultancy," he wrote in the Telegraph.

Click here for more on the jail sentences other hackers have had to serve.