Aug 1, 2011 13:38 GMT  ·  By

Alleged LulzSec and Anonymous spokesperson Topiary might continue in the footsteps of Gary McKinnon and Ryan Cleary and build a defense around an autism spectrum disorder.

According to the Daily Mail, Jake Davis, the 18-year-old teenager from Lerwick, Shetland Islands, who is believed to be the hacktivist known as Topiary, is suffering from a form of autism.

The newspaper doesn't go into detail about the disorder, but notes that he has been home tutored for the past year after being repeatedly bullied in school.

He is also said to have very few real-life friends and, according to his grandfather, he doesn't mix with the other islanders.

"I just don’t see him getting involved in anything criminal, he is not politically minded and I do not know why he would want to be a computer hacker. I am certain that if he was involved in something, which I don’t think he was, then he did not know what he was doing," his grandfather is quoted as saying.

Social isolation is one of the characteristics of autism, but since Topiary's live interviews don't suggest that he has a linguistic or cognitive disability, the most likely candidate for his condition is Asperger's syndrome.

Asperger's is a mild form of autism which, despite being characterized by poor social interaction skills and physical clumsiness, allows individuals to remain highly functioning members of society. However, people suffering from this disorder tend to develop narrow interests and to obsess about them.

Even though the syndrome does not directly impair moral judgment, when they obsess over something, individuals who suffer from Asperger's can arguably lose sight of the consequences of their actions.   Gary McKinnon, the Scottish hacker who broke into computers belonging to the US military and NASA, has been successfully using his Asperger's diagnosis to fight extradition since 2005.

According to his lawyer, former Anonymous member and LulzSec affiliate Ryan Cleary, who was arrested in June, suffers from Asperger's, as well as agoraphobia, a fear of public spaces. Whether or not this condition should give hackers attenuating circumstances is highly debatable, but it does seem that it's becoming a popular defense strategy for them, at least in the UK.

Jake Davis has been charged with unauthorized access to a computer system, encouraging and assisting offenses, conspiracy to carry out a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, and conspiracy to commit offenses under the Computer Misuse Act. He is scheduled to appear in court today.