Lauri Love with father Alexander Love and mother Sirkka. He faces trial in three US states over hacking charges

Asperger’s sufferer Lauri Love is the only one of more than 29 Britons accused of hacking US government websites to face extradition to America, it has emerged.

Every other accused person, many of whom were charged with more serious crimes than the vicar’s son, has been prosecuted and sentenced in Britain over the past 20 years.

The revelation raises the question of why the student is being singled out for extradition in what his lawyers refer to as ‘punitive’ treatment.

Mr Love, 31, faces trial in three US states and a 99-year prison sentence if convicted of hacking US government sites including the Defence Department, the US Army, Nasa and the FBI.

Independent medical experts and Mr Love’s family have warned that the ‘vulnerable and mentally unwell’ student would not survive the US prison system and would kill himself. He is appealing against a court decision two months ago to confirm his extradition, which was approved by Home Secretary Amber Rudd last week.

It has also emerged that Mr Love was linked to another alleged hacker whose extradition has not been sought by the US.

Justin Soyke faced trial in his native Australia last November for hacking government sites in the US and Australia.

THE LEGAL HURDLE LAURI MUST LEAP After intervening to stop the extradition of Gary McKinnon, Theresa May introduced a ‘forum bar’ to prevent a repeat of his ordeal. This allows the courts to refuse extradition in cases where a substantial amount of the alleged crime has taken place in the UK and it can be prosecuted in Britain. Before the bar was introduced in 2013, the Home Secretary could refuse extradition on various grounds, including human rights. But since then the power has transferred to the courts, and the Home Secretary can no longer intervene except on very specific points, which do not apply in Mr Love’s case. The forum bar was brought in after a number of high profile extradition requests from the US, including for Mr McKinnon, another Asperger’s sufferer accused of hacking into US government computers. He was spared extradition by Mrs May, the then Home Secretary, after a Daily Mail campaign. To use the bar, a judge needs to consider various factors, including where the most harm was committed and the accused person’s connections to the UK. Mr Love’s lawyers plan to appeal against his extradition on the grounds that the judge did not apply the bar in his case – its first substantive test. Advertisement

He was sentenced to three years, but was told he would serve just one before possible parole, it has been reported.

It is not clear why the US is seeking Mr Love’s extradition but not Soyke’s, given that a link was reportedly discovered between their activities.

Among the accused Britons who have not been extradited to the US in the past 20 years are members of the LulzSec hacking group who infiltrated the CIA and Sony Pictures.

They were all indicted, or charged, by the US but none was extradited. Instead the US government allowed them to be prosecuted in Britain.

In May 2013, Jake Davis, one of the founder members, was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Another member, Ryan Cleary, who hacked into the US Air Force’s computers, was sentenced to 32 months. Other members include Ryan Ackroyd, who was given 30 months, and Mustafa Al-Bassam ,who received 20 months suspended for two years with 200 hours’ unpaid work.

In 1997, Richard Pryce, who the US considered to be a huge threat for hacking the Pentagon and US defence and missile systems, was not extradited and was instead fined £1,200 by a British court.

Aaron Caffrey, an Asperger’s sufferer, was acquitted of breaking into IT systems for the Port of Houston in Texas. Mr Love’s solicitor, Karen Todner, criticised the Crown Prosecution Service’s approach to hacking cases.

‘It’s a totally inconsistent charging approach by the CPS,’ she said. ‘When the US make requests, they sometimes roll over or they prosecute here. Lauri’s case can be dealt with perfectly appropriately by the UK justice system.

‘He faces a disproportionate sentence abroad. Extraditing him is punitive and is not in the interests of justice.’

Lauri Love leaving his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in September 2016. Home Secretary Amber Rudd agreed with a judge's ruling that he should face trial in America

At his appeal hearing, his lawyers plan to argue that he would commit suicide if he exhausts all legal avenues to prevent his extradition.

They say that only in Britain will he get a fair trial, and that the crimes he is accused of were committed in his home near Newmarket, Suffolk – where he lives with mother, Sirkka, and father, the Rev Alexander Love – and so took place largely in the UK.