'Hactivists': Christopher Weatherhead (left), 22, of Northampton, was given an 18-month sentence and Ashley Rhodes (right), 28, of Camberwell, south London, was jailed for seven months at Southwark Crown Court

Avoided jail: Co-defendant Peter Gibson, 24, of Hartlepool, Durham, was deemed to have played a lesser role in the conspiracy, which he also admitted, and given a six-month suspended sentence

Jailed: 'Hactivist' Ashley Rhodes (pictured on his wedding day to wife Shirley) was nicknamed 'NikonElite'

‘But I have to sentence you on the basis that you were under 18 when convicted and therefore I’ve to sentence you as a young person.’

In jailing Weatherhead and Rhodes, Judge Testar said: ‘It is intolerable that when an individual or group disagrees with some particular entity’s activity they should be free to curtail that activity by way of attacks such as those that occurred in this case.’

Anonymous originally targeted music industry bodies in retaliation for their anti-piracy stance, but evolved after the backlash against the leak of classified data by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks.

PayPal was attacked for refusing to process payments on behalf of the Wau Holland Foundation, an organisation involved in raising funds for WikiLeaks.

Targeted sites displayed the message ‘You’ve tried to bite the Anonymous hand. You angered the hive and now you are being stung’.

Anonymous launched Operation Payback when they learnt that Pirate Bay, a pirate music site, was facing legal proceedings.

Big loss: PayPal was attacked for refusing to process payments on behalf of the Wau Holland Foundation, an organisation involved in raising funds for WikiLeaks. It cost the money transfer website £3.5million

Hacked: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (left) was forced to spend £20,000 as a result of being attacked and the British Recorded Music Industry (right) was also attacked



Believing music should be available for free on the internet, the hackers targeted the websites run by music industry regulators. They also discussed breaking into pop star Lily Allen’s website.

Northampton University graduate Weatherhead was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to impair the operation of computers last year. Rhodes, Gibson and Birchall all pleaded guilty to the offence.

Birchall was said to enjoy a ‘high level of control’ over attacks and operated two servers used by the hackers.

He boasted he was the ‘second most anon’ after Weatherhead.

When police went to arrest him he posted on an internet chat room used by Anonymous: ‘F***, the cops. I’m shutting everything down.’

Gibson, a University of York graduate, was described as a ‘technical specialist’.

Mr Smith said: ‘[He was] involved in the running of servers, it was his understanding and expertise which assisted in maintaining servers from which attacks could be launched.’

He said it was Gibson who suggested the attack on Lily Allen but had second thoughts when he had ‘concerns about attacking artists’.

Rhodes was heard to have had a ‘hands on’ approach in attacks and was regularly caught chatting online about targets.

Star: At one point Gibson suggested the website of singer Lily Allen, now known by her married name Lily Cooper, as a possible target to Rhodes, who agreed with the idea. But the attack never went ahead

The court heard Rhodes even used his work computer to launch attacks and was involved in ‘doxing,’ a form of online research or spying to gather information on possible targets.

Between August 2010 and January 11 the gang targeted several websites.

The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) was attacked between September 19 and 20, 2010, though the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) did not shut the site down.

Four websites operated by Ministry of Sound were attacked between October 3 and 6.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was forced to spend £20,000 as a result of being attacked between November 27 and December 6.

Weatherhead, of Northampton, was convicted of conspiracy to impair the operation of computers between August 1, 2010 and January 27 last year.

Rhodes, of Camberwell, south London, Gibson, of Hartlepool, Durham, and Birchall admitted the same charge.

