The teenage hacker behind the massive GTA 6 gameplay leak was in court today for sentencing. 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj was found guilty by a UK jury in August but the sentencing had been delayed until today.
Hospital for hacking Rockstar
According Joe Tidy from the BBC, Kurtaj appeared via video call from Feltham Youth Prison. He “sat alone in a black Airmax t-shirt listening” to the court’s session.
The teen has been sentenced with “an indefinite hospital order” according to the BBC’s Joe Tidy who was present in court. This means Arion Kurtaj will stay in a secure hospital for life “unless doctors deem him no longer a danger.”
The reason behind the judge giving out this punishment is due to Kurtaj still “remains a high risk to the public through his skills and motivation”. He reportedly told psychiatrists he would not stop.
On top of that, it has been said the teen had been violent many times whilst in police custody. There had been injuries made and damage to property according to the BBC.
Another factor was also revealed in today’s session. The court heard how Kurtaj had “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”
During a court session in early December, we learned how Kurtaj would commit crimes again once free. According to The Daily Mail, Dr Claudia Camden-Smith, who assessed Kurtaj, was asked by a prosecutor “if he was ‘highly motivated to return to offending?”. Dr Camden-Smith replied with “That is what he told me the last time I saw him.”
His accomplice on the hacking spree was “sentenced to an 18 month long Youth Rehabilitation Order including intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs” say the BBC.
An end to several years of hacking and fraud
This verdict has come over a year since Mr Kurtaj got into Rockstar Games’ internal Slack communications system and released 90 videos of gameplay from GTA VI.
According to the BBC, Rockstar explained to the court how the break-in cost them $5 million in recovery and “thousands of hours of staff time.”
Along with the 17-year-old accomplice, they successfully hacked Nvidia, Uber, BT, and Revolut over the course of a couple of years. Despite being on bail during these times, they continued to wreck havoc.
Mr Kurtaj did not stand trial due to being deemed unfit to do so by psychiatrists. More recently, Judge Patricia Lee postponed the sentencing today. The judge also had Kurtaj detained under the Mental Health Act as she believed he was suffering from a mental illness.
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