LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary will be freed 'imminently' despite 170 child sex abuse images

Police officers found 172 images on two computers belonging to the reclusive Ryan Cleary (PA)

A hacker with the notorious “hacktivist” collective LulzSec is to be released “imminently” despite being found with more than 170 indecent images of children as young as six months.

Police officers found 172 images on two computers belonging to Ryan Cleary, 21, when they raided the home he shared with his mother in 2011. Cleary was given two community orders in relation to the images and, because of his guilty pleas to all charges and the amount of time he has already served on remand or wearing an electronic tag, it means he will soon be released.

The hacker, who is from Wickford in Essex and was known online as ViraL, was jailed for two years and eight months in May for his role in attacks on a range of organisations including the CIA and the Serious Organised Crime Agency as part of his action with the LulzSec group.

Their attacks placed the personal details of hundreds of thousands of people unencrypted on the internet, potentially at the mercy of organised crime. Sentencing Cleary at Southwark Crown Court for two counts of making indecent images and one of possessing indecent images, Judge Deborah Taylor said: “Some of these images showed children aged as young as six months old in circumstances where they were completely vulnerable.

“These images were such as would make any right-minded person concerned at you viewing such images.”

She added: “I have also taken into account that although the sentencing guideline recommend an immediate custodial sentence, time has been served in any event.”