Linkin Park cyber-stalker sent to jail

A former US government security lab worker who used office computers to cyber-stalk Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

Devon Townsend used her access to Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico to hack into the crooner's email account, and also tapped his mobile provider's website to obtain the telephone number of Bennington and his wife, former Playboy model Talinda Bennington.

Townsend has been given 60 days to surrender herself to a Phoenix Arizona-area prison. She is expected to undergo mental health care once admitted. For stalking. A lack of musical taste still isn't a crime.

Among the paraphernalia the star-struck fanatic was able to procure were: emails between Bennington and Warner Bros. records; a copy of the band's recording contract; a copy of a check made out to Bennington from the record label; and several family vacation photos.

She also obtained Bennington's 34-page Verizon phone bill, which included the history of his phone usage as well as the telephone numbers of his band mates, friends and family. Townsend used this information to phone Bennington's wife and threaten her.

She also admitted to using Bennington's voicemails as means of trying to locate him when he was in Arizona.

Bennington, 31, is famed for succinctly weaving into his music the angst, strife and emotional delicacy felt by your average suburbanite 16-year-old boy.

He's also a Pisces, has dark brown eyes, owns a 6,000 square-foot house in Newport Beach, and was bitten by a recluse spider in 2001 which caused his arm to swell. He has two pet dogs: a Rottweiler-Labrador mix and an Australian shepherd. He has two half-sisters and one half-brother. In March 2004, Bennington had laser eye surgery. He's 5'10" tall.

When Bennington was 11 years old, his parents got divorced. ®