Student accused of Sarah Palin email hack

Son of a Democratic politician dragged into court

9 October 2008 16:18 GMT / By Katie Scott

The whole saga over the hacking of the Yahoo account belonging to US VP hopeful, Sarah Palin, has taken another twist.

The Republican candidate for the US vice presidential position was revealed to have been using her Yahoo account to send "work" related emails, when hackers, calling themselves "Anonymous", broke into her accounts and published some of the correspondence online.

Among the emails posted on the Internet is a message sent from Palin to the vice-governor of Alaska and an email called "Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger".

But, while Palin is being hauled in for not archiving her official emails properly, the FBI has been hot on the tale of the hackers and now none other than the son of a Democratic politician has been accused.

David Kernell, a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee, has been dragged into court in Knoxville, accused of gaining unauthorised access to Palin's Yahoo account, but pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors claim that Kernell, who is the son of state congressman Mike Kernell, posted some of the messages from the gov.palin@yahoo.com account as well as Palin's password online.

Kernell turned himself in when he heard about the charges, whilst his father has denied having anything to do with the hack.

If convicted, Kernell could face 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.