A computer security expert arrested three weeks ago on G20 summit charges has been refused bail after days of hearings.

Justice of the Peace Mary Anne Ross-Hendricks ruled shortly before 11 a.m. that Byron Sonne, 37, must remain in jail.

The details discussed in the bail hearings are under a publication ban, as are the reasons behind the justice of the peace’s decision to keep Sonne detained.

As Ross-Hendricks read her ruling, Sonne occasionally grimaced, but for the most part, he impassively stared straight ahead.

Wearing an off-white sweatshirt with the sleeves pushed up, Sonne turned to reporters and mouthed the word “bullsh--.”

His parents, Valerie and Bue Asbjorn Sonne, who have been at every hearing, looked shaken. His mother trembled slightly. The couple, along with their other son, Kristopher, have been driving to the courtroom on Finch Ave. W. from their Brampton home for most of the sessions.

Outside the courthouse, lawyer Breese Davies said Sonne and his family were “obviously disappointed” by the decision.

“We will consider the options in terms of a bail review and start preparing for his trial,” she said.

On June 22, police converged on Sonne’s home on Elderwood Dr. and arrested him on a slew of charges, the most serious of which is possession of an explosive. He also faces charges of mischief and intimidating a justice system participant.

The next day, Sonne’s wife and co-accused, Kristen Peterson, was arrested.

She has been free on bail since June 26. Her conditions include living with her parents, Maureen and John Peterson, and having no contact with Sonne except in the presence of lawyers.

Colleagues said after his arrest that Sonne was well-respected in his field of computer security and had previously worked for top companies such as nCircle Network Security and FSC Internet Corp.

He was running his own computer security consultancy called Halvdan, which means “half Danish,” according to former boss Mike Murray.

Murray has known Sonne for seven years and said he would never do anything malicious.

“There’s something fishy to all this. He’s not this kind of person,” Murray said. “Reading all the stuff about explosives — that’s not Byron.”

Not long before his arrest three weeks ago, Sonne had joked he was the last guy counter-terrorism officials would be prone to investigate.

Sonne made the comment about a month ago at a “Surveillance Club” meeting, a monthly gathering for academics and activists who enjoy discussing surveillance issues and ideas.

Sonne shared his plans to protest the G20 and mused he was hardly the type to raise security alarm bells — slightly nerdy with a receding hairline, the computer specialist lives in a million-dollar Forest Hill home with his artist wife.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“He certainly made an impression that he was harmless, playful,” said Jesse Hirsh, an Internet specialist and broadcaster who met Sonne at the May 5 meeting.

He called the decision to deny Sonne bail was an overreaction.

“This is something that does not merit the severe repercussions that are going on,” he said. “I predict in two years, Byron Sonne will be a social media hero. He will be a cause célèbre and the Free Byron movement will be quite substantial. Regular Canadians will be able to support this individual, not because of what he’s done, which I think everyone can agree is foolish, but because the way he’s being treated.”

In high school, Sonne reportedly planted a fake bomb that led to his school being evacuated, causing classmates to vote him “most likely to become an international terrorist” in their yearbook, according to a former schoolmate.

“He’s not a terrorist or anything like that,” said Julian Dunn, who worked with Sonne in 2003. “If anything, he’s what I would term an agent provocateur. (He likes to) push buttons and challenge the security apparatus.”

At the Surveillance Club meeting, Sonne shared his plans to listen in on police scanners during the summit and disseminate information to protesters via Twitter, according to Hirsh and Andrew Clement, a University of Toronto professor at the meeting.

This was the same tactic used by two protesters at last year’s G20 summit in Pittsburgh, a plan that led to their arrests. The charges were dropped.

“He was more critical of the whole circus, as it were,” Hirsh recalled. “I suspect that this may just be a stunt and perhaps a stunt that got out of hand.”

Sonne’s Twitter account also likely placed him on the radar; G20 security had been actively monitoring social media. His pre-arrest tweets linked to photos and videos of the security fence, as well as a G20 counter-surveillance “how to” guide he created and posted on a file-sharing website.

Sonne’s tweets suggested he has already been listening in on police communications with a radio scanner, a practice that is legal and used by many news outlets to stay abreast of breaking news. According to Twitter, he has also had two run-ins with G20 police before his arrest.

“Some people must be stupid; I’ve never been arrested or forced to delete pictures of cops and I’ve been stopped 2 times now #g20report” he tweeted on June 21.

His last Twitter update was at 11:10 a.m. June 22.