He told the court that he had not read the telephone intercepts in the legal brief. In fact, he had `only read the summary of facts' and when Taylor mentioned `International Subversive', he asked her, `What was that?'
Then he asked her how to spell the word `phreak'.
Later that day, after Judge Ross had read the other judges' sentences, he gave Mendax a sentence similar to Prime Suspect's—a recorded conviction on all counts, a reparation payment of $2100 to ANU and a three-year good behaviour bond.
There were two variations. Prime Suspect and Trax both received $500 good behaviour bonds; Judge Ross ordered a $5000 bond for Mendax. Further, Judge Lewis had given Prime Suspect almost twelve months to pay his $2100 reparation. Judge Ross ordered Mendax to pay within three months.
Judge Ross told Mendax, `I repeat what I said before. I thought initially that these were offences which justified a jail sentence, but the mitigatory circumstances would have converted that to a suspended sentence. The sentence given to your co-offender caused me to alter that view, however.' He was concerned, he said, `that highly intelligent individuals ought not to behave like this and I suspect it is only highly intelligent individuals who can do what you did'.
The word `addiction' did not appear anywhere in the sentencing transcript.
CHAPTER 10 — Anthrax — The Outsider.
They had a gun at my head and a knife at my back; Don't wind me up too tight.
— from `Powderworks' (also called The Blue Album).
Anthrax didn't like working as part of a team. He always considered other people to be the weakest link in the chain.