UK Cybercriminal Who Blackmailed Baroness for Bitcoin, Pleads Guilty to TalkTalk Hack

The “Bitcoin cybercriminal” pleads guilty to 11 charges and faces 4 years detention after blackmailing Baroness of Winscombe and Talk Talk executives.

After a gruesome two and a half years, David Kelley, the hacker of U.K’s telecommunication company Talk Talk, was finally sentenced earlier in the week after pleading guilty to nearly a dozen charges. The hacker is charged with a number of hacking attempts to steal personal information and credit information of over 150,000 users as well as blackmail charges from top company officials.

Cybercriminal Pleads Guilty To 11 Counts of Crime

Kelley pleaded guilty to 11 charges related to hacking attempts back in 2016 and has been sentenced to four years in a junior detention facility. The judge at Old Bailey’s reasons that the twenty two-year-old offender committed the crimes while still a child hence the punishment.

The team at Talk Talk Company accuses the hacker of causing over £77 million GBP in losses to the company after he hacked the personal details of over 150,000 customers in 2015. This, however, was not the only crime he has been charged with as he has hacked a number of top firms in Canada, Australia, and the UK.

The troubled hacking criminal is said to have started after Kelley failed to secure enough GCSE points to pursue a computer degree. The personal vendetta towards his college is described as “hacking out of spite” and is further condemned by Judge Mark Dennis. The judge further claims that Kelley hacked computers “for his own personal gratification” regardless of the damage caused.

Kelley Blackmails Baroness For Bitcoin

The cryptocurrency market has long been blamed by critics of abetting online criminals. Kelley is one of the perpetrators who blackmailed Baroness Harding of Winscombe, Diana Mary, the CEO of Talk Talk, Tristia Harrison and other top executives in the firm. The hacker asked for £150,000 GBP to be paid in Bitcoin (BTC) in order for him not to release personal information on these high ranking professionals.

However, the hacker only received £4,400 GBP in BTC before being tracked down and caught.

The chief prosecutor on the case was critical of Kelley’s mental state and claimed he was “prolific, skilled and cynical cyber-criminal”. He further remarked,

“Kelley is willing to bully, intimidate, and then ruin his chosen victims from a perceived position of anonymity and safety – behind the screen of a computer”.