The Prisoner's Dilemma

Day asked Anthrax why he wrote down all sorts of things, directory paths, codes, error messages.

'Just part of the record-keeping. I think I wrote this down when I had first been given this dial-up and I was just feeling my way around, taking notes of what different things did.'

'What were your intentions at the time with these computer networks?'

'At this stage, I was just having a look, just a matter of curiosity.'

'Was it a matter of curiosity – "Gee, this is interesting" or was it more like "I would like to get into them" at this stage?'

'I couldn't say what was going through my mind at the time. But initially once I got into the first system – I'm sure you have heard this a lot – but once you get into the first system, it's like you get into the next one and the next one and the next one, after a while it doesn't . . .' Anthrax couldn't find the right words to finish the explanation.

'Once you have tasted the forbidden fruit?'

'Exactly. It's a good analogy.'

Day pressed on with questions about Anthrax's hacking. He successfully elicited admissions from the hacker. Anthrax gave Day more than the police officer had before, but probably not as much as he would have liked.

It was, however, enough. Enough to keep the police from charging Anthrax's mother. And enough for them to charge him.

❖

Anthrax didn't see his final list of charges until the day he appeared in court on 28 August 1995. The whole case seemed to be a bit disorganised. His Legal Aid lawyer had little knowledge of computers, let alone computer crime. He told Anthrax he could ask for an adjournment because he hadn't seen the final charges until so late, but Anthrax wanted to get the thing over and done with. They had agreed that Anthrax