Autistic teenager held over hacking; Youth, 18, accused of global internet attacks.(News)

Byline: Victoria Allen and Chris Greenwood

AN autistic teenager was last night accused of masterminding a spree of global internet attacks from his bedroom in Shetland.

Jake Davis, 18, was held as part of an international crackdown on hackers who have wreaked havoc on the CIA, Sony and News International.

Scotland Yard detectives said Davis, of Lerwick, used the nickname Topiary to act as a spokesman for outlawed hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

He is suspected of giving cloak-anddagger interviews to U.S. television networks in which he boasted of always being 'one step ahead' of police.

Davis, originally from the island of Yell, which is home to fewer than 1,000 people, will appear in court today accused of playing a key role in a conspiracy to attack computer systems worldwide.

One count alleges that the teenager was behind an attack that brought down the website of Britain's version of the FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

His grandfather Sam Davis, 76, who also lives on Yell, described the raid as 'dramatic and ridiculous' and insisted police have got the 'wrong man'.

Mr Davis said: 'Jake is not politically minded and I do not know why he would want to be a computer hacker.

'If he was involved in something, which I don't think he was, then he did not know what he was doing.'

Davis and his brother Josh, 17, were the third and fourth people in Britain to be arrested as part of a global crackdown on the two computer hacking groups.

Josh, who moved to Spalding, Lincolnshire, with their care worker mother Jenny last month, was released without charge.

Anonymous and LulzSec have laid siege to organisations including Soca, the CIA, PayPal, Sony and News International. Last month they attacked the website of The Sun, publishing a false story claiming Rupert Murdoch had died.

Police have been rounding up suspected members, with raids in Britain, Holland and the U.S.

Mr Davis said his grandson, who moved to Lerwick a year ago, has spent the past year off school, speaking online to friends in the U.S. and being tutored at home.

Asked how his grandson was coping, Mr Davis said the teenager was 'upset' and had 'blown his top' at investigators several times during lengthy questioning.

Mr Davis added: 'Jake doesn't really mix with the other islanders. He hasn't a lot of friends, although he doesn't mind talking to them on the internet.'

Nikki Finnie, 17, a fellow pupil at Mid Yell Junior High School, said Davis was so badly bullied he left school and retreated into a computer fantasy world.

She said: 'He's a nice boy but he didn't speak to people. He is really good with computers and quite obsessive. When I heard the hacker might have been him, it made sense.'

It is understood the teenager, who dreams of becoming an RAF pilot, was seen by a medical expert while in custody to judge the extent of his autism.

Police are also probing the use of computers at a Shetland hotel that Mr Davis formerly owned with his wife, Dorothy.

The main Twitter account for LulzSec fell silent hours before Davis was arrested. On his account, Davis wiped all messages except one: 'You cannot arrest an idea.'

In June, 19-year-old Ryan Cleary, of Essex, was charged with involvement in Anonymous and LulzSec's cyber-attacks on the websites of Soca and record industry trade body BPI.

Gary McKinnon, a systems administrator originally of Milton of Campsie, Dunbartonshire, is facing extradition to the U.S. over what has been dubbed the biggest military hack of all time.

Gary, who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, hacked into systems for Nasa and the Pentagon.

A 16-year-old known online as Tflow has also been arrested and bailed in London.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said Davis would appear at City of Westminster magistrates' court charged with offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

v.allen@dailymail.co.uk