A TEENAGER from Shetland has been charged with computer offences by Scotland Yard detectives investigating hacking attacks.

Jake Davis, 18, who was arrested and taken to London as part of the inquiry into hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec, was charged with unauthorised computer access and conspiracy to carry out a distributed denial of service attack on the Serious and Organised Crime Agency's (Soca) website.

The teenager from Yell, reported to be a keen online chess player, faces five charges and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court today, police said.

Officers from the police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested the teenager on Wednesday in what they describe as a "pre-planned intelligence-led operation".

The UK Serious Organised Crime agency took its website offline for several hours on June 20 after it appeared to be a victim of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

LulzSec claimed responsibility for the attack.

Soca said it had taken its website offline to limit the impact of the attack on clients.

As the agency launched an investigation, LulzSec tweeted: "Tango down – in the name of #AntiSec."

On June 28, Ryan Cleary, 19, from Essex was charged with attacking the Soca website and sites owned by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

He was arrested as part of a joint investigation by London police and the FBI into attacks on high-profile websites, and was given bail.

At the time of the Shetlander's arrest, police said they believed they had arrested a man who used the online nickname of Topiary. Topiary is understood to be second in command of the LulzSec group that has been responsible for hacking law enforcement agencies.

Topiary was known to manage LulzSec's Twitter account and was believed to be key to all the activists' public statements.

LulzSec has previously claimed responsibility for hacking attempts on Soca, the US Senate, the CIA and the Sun newspaper.