Galway man gets suspended sentence for hacking The Sun website

A Claregalway teenager who hacked the Sun newspaper's website has been given a suspended prison sentence. 25-year-old, Darren Martyn with an address at Cloonbiggeen was 19 years old when he and others hacked into the News International website six years ago. They redirected users to a fake news story saying media mogul Rupert Murdoch was dead. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Darren Martyn is now a security researcher for a UK consultancy firm and is also a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He admitted to Gardaí that he took part in the hacking in retaliation for the media company's involvement in the phone hacking scandal. Darren Martyn was a member of Lulzsec, a part of the Anonymous hacking group at the time. He pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage to data that was the property of News International in July 2011. Judge Karen O' Connor said that it was a serious offence which involved considerable planning and premeditation. However she noted that Darren Martyn appeared to be in a different place professionally and in terms of maturity and therefore imposed a suspended nine-month sentence.