Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the US after his appeal to be seen before the UK Supreme Court was denied.

McKinnon was arrested seven years ago for allegedly hacking into computers belonging to amongst others the US Army and NASA. He claims to have been searching for information about aliens, but perhaps unsurprisingly his accusers have decided that he was up to something much more dangerous.

His case has seen many twists and turns and he has become something of a cause célèbre, however, now it appears that all this was in vain.

The Supreme Court said that the case was not of enough "general public importance" to justify its intervention.

Not enough "general public importance"? Don't they read the papers? Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Sir Bob Geldof and Chrissie Hynde have recorded a protest song, while Barry Norman and John Major's daughter in law have also opened and closed their mouths while words came out in support of the case. And that's just the celebrities.

According to security firm Sophos, the majority of IT professionals support McKinnon's cause and will be disappointed to hear of this latest twist. The firm said that in a poll it found that some 71 per cent of IT workers did not think that McKinnon should be extradited.

McKinnon faces sixty odd years in a high security prison. Which is a rather large book to throw at anyone. Can't they at least make it a paperback?