Nasa hacker has 'shut down', say protesters

Lucy Clarke, McKinnon's girlfriend, said he had withdrawn into himself following the loss of his appeal against extradition to the European Court of Human Rights.

"He's shut down," Clarke told ZDNet.co.uk. "Gary's been living with this for six years — I'm surprised he hasn't had some kind of breakdown before now. We were all absolutely shocked at the knockback from Europe — it was just soul destroying. It felt like a death. It's the only way to describe the massive amount of loss."

Clarke said that McKinnon had other medical problems, which had been exacerbated by stress. "He had palpitations — chest pains which he is still having. It's the stress. Every morning he wakes up with pains. We're very concerned about his health."

Clarke added that she hoped the US would be "realistic" in sentencing McKinnon. "I want the Americans to be realistic here, a bit bloody realistic" said Clarke. "Seventy years is a joke. At the end of the day, this was a bloke on a computer. If you haven't got passwords, you're lucky that Gary wasn't a terrorist. He's always said he was wrong — but they should have had the security set up. He hasn't murdered anybody."