GTA 6 hacker sentenced to life at mental hospital, deemed unfit to stand trial

The teenager behind last year's disastrous Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks has been sentenced to life in a secure hospital, the BBC reports.

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18-year-old hacker Arion Kurtaj has been sentenced to a life term in a mental hospital for his role in Lapsus$ cybertheft activity. In 2022, Kurtaj took part in a major database infiltration on Rockstar Games, successfully acquiring 90 clips of the then-unannounced Grand Theft Auto 6. Kurtaj actually hacked Rockstar and released the GTA 6 videos while he was out on bail for previous hacks on NVIDIA and BT/EE.

As a result of his actions and apparent motivation to keep carrying out cybercrimes, UK Judge Patricia Lees has sentenced Kurtaj to an indefinite stay in a mental hospital. Kurtaj suffers from acute autism and was found by psychiatrists as unable to stand trial, so the courts took a more direct approach and simply asked Kurtaj if he did the acts, Reuters reports.

Judge Lees found that the 18-year-old is "determined to commit further serious offences if the opportunity arose."

In August, a jury charged Kurtaj with 12 offenses, including 3 counts of blackmail, 2 counts of fraud, and 6 violations of the UK's Computer Misuse Act.

Rockstar Games has since released the official Grand Theft Auto 6 reveal trailer, which has become one of the most popular pieces of video games media in the history of YouTube. The trailer has already amassed 155 million views in little over 14 days.

The GTA 6 leaks were likewise as widely reported on across all multimedia streams, whether it be blogs, print media, or online video.