The vicar father of an autistic man accused of hacking into US government computers warned there was a "high probability" that he would kill himself if he is extradited to America.
Asperger's sufferer Lauri Love, 31, is accused of stealing huge amounts of data from the Federal Reserve, the Department of Defence, Nasa and the FBI among others.
READ MORE: Fears son will kill himself if extradition to US is granted over alleged computer hacking
American authorities want the former Glasgow University student, who lives with his parents in Suffolk, to stand trial there over charges of cyber-hacking, which his lawyers say could lead to him spend up to 99 years in prison if found guilty.
But his parents told an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court that their "exceptionally gifted" son has a long history of severe mental health and physical illnesses.
His mental health, combined with the deep stress of separation while waiting for trial and during a possible jail sentence, would be "highly likely" to result in his suicide, they said.
READ MORE: Fears son will kill himself if extradition to US is granted over alleged computer hacking
Rev Alexander Love, a prison chaplain who himself works with vulnerable people at risk of suicide, told the court that those he helps often see killing themselves as their only solution to a future they cannot see.
He said: "In regard to my son ... Lauri is somebody who strikes me as somebody who will do this. The probability is quite high."
Rev Love said the "bitter experience" of leading funerals for people who had killed themselves led to the regret that everyone has, "that they didn't see it coming".
He pleaded with his son, who was a high profile figure in the Glasgow Occupy protests, not to be extradited, he said: "In Lauri's case we do see it coming, that is the big difference."
READ MORE: Fears son will kill himself if extradition to US is granted over alleged computer hacking
The court heard that Mr Love, an electrical engineering student at the University Campus Suffolk, is accused of working with others to carry out a series of sophisticated cyber attacks on computer networks in the US from the UK, breaking in via the "back door" to access personal information of thousands of government staff, as well as credit card details.
But his lawyer Ben Cooper said there was a "real risk" that the slim chance of bail in the US while awaiting trial, the possibility of being incarcerated in solitary confinement and being separated from his parents - whose care and presence is "fundamental" to his mental stability - means there is a "real risk of mental breakdown".
And he said that the case was a "paradigm" to that of Gary McKinnon, another alleged cyber-hacker with Aspergers who was eventually spared extradition after a decade-long battle when the Home Secretary intervened.
Theresa May introduced a "forum bar", which allows courts to block extradition if it is in the interests of justice to have the person tried in Britain instead.
Mr Cooper said Mr Love's case was "almost identical" to Mr McKinnon's, telling the court: "If ever there was a case for the forum bar to succeed, this would be it."
As he sat in the dock listening to the evidence, Mr Love made roses out of coloured paper, and crafted an intricate geometric star.
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