LONDON—On the day his trial was due to start, Anonymous member Ryan "kayla" Ackroyd, 26, of Doncaster, UK, entered a guilty plea on one count of "conspiring to do an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer or computers."

Ackroyd cut a forlorn figure as he stood alone in the dock, dressed in a blue T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, sporting elaborate tattoos and a crew cut. Co-conspirator Jake "topiary" Davis was dismissed earlier in the day after his guilty plea from last year was accepted by the court, leaving Ackroyd to face the prospect of standing trial alone. Though previous court appearances had seen Anonymous demonstrations and appearances, both men lacked any such moral support today.

Ackroyd's defence team asked for a last-minute adjournment of first one hour and then a second hour before the guilty plea was finally entered.

Ackroyd specifically admitted to being the Anon known as "kayla" and routinely described as a "16 year old girl." Ackroyd was a member of Lulzsec, the hacking offshoot of Internet activists Anonymous, and he admitted to being their go-to hacking guy and to participating in hacks against computer security firms HBGary and HBGary Federal, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, PBS, Infragard, Nintendo, the UK's National Health Service, the Arizona State Police, and News International.

Charges of conspiracy to perform DDoS attacks against Westboro Baptist Church, Sony, Bethesda, Eve Online, the CIA, the Serious Organized Crimes Agency in the UK, and News International were left on file after the Crown Prosecution Service opted not to prosecute them.

Co-conspirators Jake "topiary" Davis and Mustafa "tflow" al-Bassam (both Lulzsec members) had previously entered guilty pleas against both charges. Co-conspirator Cleary had been charged with a further four crimes: constructing a botnet, making the botnet available for others, hacking into Pentagon computers operated by the US Air Force, and performing a DDoS attack against DreamHost. He entered guilty pleas last year to all four charges.

The four men each faced two further charges of encouraging or assisting acts of fraud and computer misuse by publishing information on pastebin.com, lulzsec.com, and The Pirate Bay; after their guilty pleas, these were left on file.

The muted guilty pleas were a far cry from the brassy Lulzsec rhetoric heard in 2011 as the group took down one high-profile target after another. In a manifesto at the time, Lulzsec explained why it released personal usernames and passwords that resulted in a rash of real-world theft:

This is the lulz lizard era, where we do things just because we find it entertaining. Watching someone's Facebook picture turn into a penis and seeing their sister's shocked response is priceless. Receiving angry emails from the man you just sent 10 dildos to because he can't secure his Amazon password is priceless. You find it funny to watch havoc unfold, and we find it funny to cause it. We release personal data so that equally evil people can entertain us with what they do with it.

Sentencing of all four is due to occur on May 14th at Southwark Crown Court in London. Ackroyd and Davis are bailed until then, subject to the condition that they wear electronic tags, abide by curfews, and neither access the Internet nor ask others to access the Internet on their behalf.

The four face a maximum sentence of 10 years, with 2-3 years expected.