Teenager Sentenced For Hacking Into U.S. LabTeenager Sentenced For Hacking Into U.S. Lab

A teenage London computer whiz who hacked into the computer installation of a U.S. nuclear weapons research lab to store music and film has escaped paying the big fine asked for by the lab.

The Reuters news agency reported that Joseph James McElroy, 18, was sentenced Monday to perform 200 hours of community service for breaking into the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The U.S. Department of Energy had asked for $38,000 to pay for the three days that part of the lab's computer installation was shut down.

The ruling judge skipped the compensation demands, noting that McElroy never compromised the laboratory's research data. McElroy, a student at Exeter University in southwest England, said he didn't know the computers belonged to a government-funded facility.

Over two weeks in June 2002, McElroy stored and exchanged his personal collection of music and film files in the laboratory's computer installation.