The Metropolitan Police last night confirmed that the alleged LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary has been charged with offences contrary to Computer Misuse Act.

Ryan Cleary was arrested earlier this month in a joint operation between the U.K.'s Metropolitan and Essex Police force and the U.S.'s FBI.

Police raided 19-year-old Cleary's home in Wickford, Essex arresting him and taking his computers for examination.

"Searches at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, following the arrest last night have led to the examination of a significant amount of material. These forensic examinations remain ongoing", commented a Metropolitan Police representative at the time.

The police revealed that Cleary was being charged and would face trial yesterday evening via Twitter. "Ryan Cleary, 19, has been charged with offences contrary to the Computer Misuse Act. He appears at City of Westminster MC on 23/6", read the Met's tweet.

Cleary has been charged for web assaults on the Serious Organised Crime Agency, British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. It has since been revealed that Cleary could face extradition to the U.S. for involvement in other cyber attacks and hacks.

Since his arrest LulzSec has adamantly insisted that Cleary is not one of its members.

LulzSec has since issued a series of tweets on the topic:

"Clearly the UK police are so desperate to catch us that they've gone and arrested someone who is, at best, mildly associated with us. Lame."

Followed by, "Oh well - less tweet spam now. Best watch out, they can't get us, so they're going after people they think might know us. Defend yourselves."

LulzSec went on to clarify that the only connection Cleary had with the group was through certain chatrooms hosted on one of his IRC servers.

"Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it.

"@superbus We use Ryan's server, we also use Efnet, 2600, Rizon and AnonOps IRC servers. That doesn't mean they're all part of our group."

LulzSec is yet to comment on the news that Cleary has been charged and will be taken to court.

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