A 32-year-old Midland man has been charged with computer 'hacking' and blackmail following an international manhunt to trace an internet stalker who allegedly preyed on a schoolgirl in Canada.
Adrian Ringland will appear in court in London later this month following a joint investigation between the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Three months ago The Birmingham Post revealed how a 14-year-old Canadian girl's computer had been 'hacked' into and the hard drive had been manipulated and she had been coerced into sending the 'hacker' pictures of herself naked.
Surveillance experts from the RCMP tracked Ringland to his home in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and he was arrested on August 28, 2003.
A spokeswoman from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit yesterday told The Post that Ringland had been charged with eight counts of
unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer, eight counts of blackmail, six counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing an indecent photo of a child.
The RCMP were alerted when the girl's parents, from Manitoba, contacted Winnipeg police.
Specialist officers investigated and contacted the National Crime Squad in Britain. Ringland will appear at Southwark Crown Court on October 21.
