Forum Owner Sentenced to Time Served and 20 Years of Supervised Release under Special Conditions

Blimey, get this. You remember that bloke we talked about the other week, Conor Fitzpatrick? Well, a US judge has just handed him an absolute stunner of a sentence – one that doesn’t involve prison. Looks like the online chatter was way off mark. Instead, Fitzpatrick will be monitored closely – and I mean closely – for the years to come.

Just to refresh your memory. Fitzpatrick, AKA “Pompompurin”, was up on three charges: conspiracy to commit access device fraud, access device fraud – unauthorised solicitation, and possession of child explicit stuff. Each charge had the potential to put him away for a very long time. Instead, the judge has slapped him with supervised release. Interesting, innit?

Makes you scratch your head though, doesn’t it? Wasn’t the chap out on bond for almost the entire time between his nicking and sentencing, with the exception of the last few weeks after he got himself re-arrested? Experts had said he could get up to two decades in the slammer just on that child explicit stuff alone.

But instead, here are the terms of Fitzpatrick’s unique punishment. First, he’ll be effectively under house arrest for two years (including GPS monitoring). During this time, the only time he’ll get to see the outdoors will be for therapy, meetings with the probation officer, medical appointments and religious stuff. Then, he has to get hooked up to a lie detector to make sure he sticks to his end of the deal. Talk about Big Brother, eh?

Fitzpatrick will also be on a mental health treatment program, will not be able to view or own any kind of explicit stuff, and will not interact with under-18s. To cap it all, he has to register as a sex offender in any state he lives, works, or attends school. On top of that, he has a computer monitoring software to contend with, and at least for the first year of his release, he’s barred from the internet.

Might sound like a charitable sentence to some, though over the next twenty years, Fitzpatrick’s life will be restricted to the nines of everything he does. Crucially, any violations of these terms can result in revocation of the release. Imagine living with that ticking time-bomb!

So, why such a light sentence? Might be a couple of reasons. First, there were rumours about Fitzpatrick’s mental health, including web chatter that said he’d tried to end his life. No doubt prison is a rough place for anyone battling mental health problems. Perhaps Judge Brinkema felt prison might tip him over the edge?

Then again, it could have to do with how cooperative old Fitzpatrick was with the prosecution. Information about other shady characters could go a long way to earn some leniency. Men like Fitzpatrick could provide valuable insights to the feds. Some even speculate if he’ll be working for the FBI when he re-emerges online.

Regrettably, he’s not the kind of example to deter wannabe young hackers. Supervised release might seem light, and some might even think they can skirt around the law like Fitzpatrick did. The truth, however, is that the man’s life will be heavily restricted, and he’s likely to face social and economic hardships as a registered sex offender.

No word yet from Uncle Sam on their thoughts about the sentence. But no matter which way you spin it, it’s certainly a unique sentence!

So, to all you budding hackers – do us all a favour and don’t get any ideas, will you? Remember, Big Brother is watching…

by Parker Bytes