US extradition ‘sold son down the river’

Sheffield Hallam University undergraduate Richard O’Dwyer, 23, allegedly earned thousands of pounds through advertising on the TVShack website before it was closed down by US authorities .

It is alleged the site hosted links to “pirated” film and TV programmes. Theresa May signed the order authorising O’Dwyer’s extradition yesterday.

His mother Julia warned the US was coming for the young, the old and the ill, adding “and our Government is paving the way”.

Mrs O’Dwyer, from Chesterfield, said: “If Richard appears to have committed a crime in this country – then try him in this country. Instead the Home Secretary wants to send him thousands of miles away and leave him languishing, in a US jail, before he has a chance to demonstrate his innocence.”

It follows a series of high-profile extradition cases, including British businessman Christopher Tappin, 65, of Kent, sent to the US last month to spend 23 hours a day alone in his cell awaiting trial over arms dealing claims. It is 10 years since the US first asked for Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon to be extradited over charges he hacked military computers. Mr McKinnon, who says he was looking for evidence of UFOs, is still awaiting a decision.

O’Dwyer can still appeal to the High Court, and then to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to stop his extradition to the US to face charges.