Exclusive: Met Police and CPS to discuss Gary McKinnon legal case in late November

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will meet in late November to decide if they will bring a new investigation into the hacking allegations around Gary McKinnon, V3 has learnt.

The revelation comes three weeks after home secretary Theresa May confirmed the government had refused a request from the US government to extradite McKinnon on health grounds as he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome.

However, she said at the time he may still have a case to answer in the UK and that a final decision would be down to the CPS and director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer.

V3 has now learnt that the CPS and the MPS are to meet to discuss the situation in the coming weeks, having both undertaken research into the case beforehand.

"The Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police Service have agreed to form a joint panel to decide whether a new criminal investigation into the allegations against Gary McKinnon should take place," a CPS spokesperson told V3.

"It is proposed that the panel will convene in late November once some preliminary enquiries have been made by both the CPS and the MPS."

The CPS clarified the panel will decide whether to pursue a new investigation into McKinnon's alleged activities, rather than issuing legal proceedings against him directly.

It may not result in any action being taken or a decision being made, the CPS added.

The move to form a panel so soon after the government rejected the call for extradition is a marked difference to the 10 years of legal limbo McKinnon suffered under successive governments.

McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp, who campaigned tirelessly on her son's behalf, had always said the family had no issue with McKinnon standing trial in the UK, but that due to his illness sending him to the US could have led to his suicide.

It was this risk, backed up by medical evidence, that led May to decide aganist the extradition of McKinnon to the US.