Britain has some of the most draconian security laws of the “free” world. Many of these laws are brought in under the guise of fighting terrorism and paedophiles (which are always guaranteed vote winners) and of course, if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to worry about.
Unless you’re an schizophrenic amateur scientist with a distrust of the authorities and you refuse to hand over the encryption keys (passwords) to your USB memory sticks. That’ll cost you an initial 13 months in jail followed by detention in a secure mental unit at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
Ok, so the case is slightly more complex but the heart of the matter is that this person had done nothing wrong before he was detained by police returning to the UK from France on suspicion of terrorism because he had a model rocket, though the rocket was without its explosive motor. From that point on, it was a downward spiral.
And how many terrorists and paedophiles have been sent to prison using the same law. Zero.
The whole sorry tale is at The Register.