The Good Schools Guide noted that 12 out of 41 British gold medal-winners educated in the UK attended private school. (A 42nd medal winner's educational background was unknown and a 43rd was schooled in Germany).
Completely unknown at the time of his arrest, Mr McKinnon became a symbol of the controversial US-UK extradition treaty, gaining a wealth of celebrity backers as diverse as Terry Waite, Sting and Julie Christie.