Police and CPS explain McKinnon decision

The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service released a joint statement explaining their decision not to take further action against Gary McKinnon.

They identified a number of reasons why pursuing a prosecution would not be in the public interest:

• Gary McKinnon is was originally supposed to be tried in the US; in October 2012, when the Home Secretary decided not to extradite him, there was no live criminal investigation against him in the UK, nor had there been for many years

• As far as building a case against McKinnon in the UK was concerned, "the harm occurred in the US", the investigation was launched in the US, most of the witnesses are in the US and nearly all the physical evidence is in the US

• US authorities, though willing to co-operate with a prosecution, would not agree transfer witnesses or evidence to the UK
• The "prospect of a conviction in the UK which reflects the full extent of his alleged criminality are not high"