Skip to main content

Gordon Ramsay’s father-in-law charged with hacking the chef’s computer

gordon ramsay father in law hacking cheframsay
He’s known for his temper, so it’s no wonder that a family feud involving Gordon Ramsay is nothing less than a battle royale. On Tuesday, the famous(ly potty-mouthed) Michelin-starred chef took a step closer to justice at the expense of several of his in-laws. His father-in-law and three other members of the clan have been charged by the Met police with regard to computer hacking allegations that are now seven years old.

Chris Hutcheson, his sons Adam and Chris, and his daughter Orlanda Butland are now facing legal repercussions for the “illegal interception of messages on computers,” the Guardian reports. The Met police said in a statement, “The charges follow allegations that between 23 October 2010 and 3 March 2011, they conspired together to cause a computer to access programs and data held in any computer without authority, contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977.”

It’s a long fall from grace for Hutcheson, who served as the CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings for many years. But back in October 2010, Ramsay fired his father-in-law, claiming that his computers had been hacked and that Hutcheson was behind the leaking of emails between Ramsay and his wife (who happens to be Hutcheson’s daughter).

Charges facing the Hutcheson family manifested following an investigation conducted by detectives working on Operation Tuleta, which was initially started to investigate claims of hacking at newspapers. It’s one of several operations that launched following reports of phone hacking with regard to the United Kingdom media.

Chris, Adam, and Chris Hutcheson, along with Orlanda Butland, are scheduled to make an appearance at Westminster magistrates court on March 14. So let this serve as a warning to angry family members everywhere — there are apparently no ties that are strong enough to justify breaking into someone else’s inbox. Especially if that someone else is known for his temper.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Hack into a car in Michigan, spend the rest of your life in prison
top tech stories of the week 7 24 2015 massive 1 4 million car recall over hacking

Ever think about life in the slammer? Do you remember last summer when hackers disabled a Jeep Cherokee from 10 miles away by hacking into its UConnect system? Well, a whole lot of people took notice of what was a really a tech demonstration of onboard vehicle system vulnerability. To say the car industry and lawmakers freaked out is putting it mildly.

To show how seriously U.S. car capital Detroit takes it, two new car hacking bills have been submitted to the Michigan legislature, as reported by Automotive News. One of the Senate bills makes car hacking a felony. The second bill has sentencing guidelines calling for convictions to result in prison sentences... for life. Like, until you die.

Read more
Nightmare in the kitchen? Gordon Ramsay has five quick tips for better cooking
gordon ramsay 5 kitchen tips 609 009 masterchef gordons greatest hits

If you watch any of his many shows, you might think chef Gordon Ramsay likes to make people cry. But in order to help normal people improve their skills in the kitchen, he recently released a video showcasing how to master five fundamental kitchen skills — including chopping an onion without tearing up as badly.

His onion-dicing trick involves cutting the bulb in half, then doing a lot of slices without cutting into the root. That’s where a lot of the watery-eye-inducing gases are concentrated. By avoiding slicing into it, you can keep a few tears at bay, but it won’t entirely eliminate the irritant. (If you’re super irritated by onions, you could always invest in some swimming goggles to keep the gasses from getting into your eyeballs.)

Read more
Want to hack a Linux computer? Just hit backspace 28 times
Linux logo on Chromebook.

Contrary to what you might have experienced as Aiden Pierce in Watch Dogs, hacking isn't easy. In fact, trying to log in to someone else's computer to compromise their files is practically impossible without the right set of tools. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately, depending on who you're asking) security researchers have discovered a bug in several Linux distributions that makes taking over an entire system as easy as striking the backspace key 28 times.

The report comes from security researchers Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll, at a Polytechnic University Cybersecurity Group in Valencia, Spain. Upon backspacing exactly 28 times, the pair discovered that all authentication systems can be easily overridden. The bug affects every distribution of Linux using Grub2, the bootloader found in "most Linux systems," the researchers wrote in their published results.

Read more