TV journalist’s estranged wife ‘ hid camera in a coat hook to spy on him’
HE has a reputation as a formidable undercover reporter willing to take on deadly gangs, traffickers and arms traders.
But now Donal MacIntyre, 52, has put his investigative skills to use closer to home after he found a spy camera allegedly planted by his estranged wife.
Ameera MacIntyre, 43, is accused of using her husband’s credit card to buy the device, disguised as a coat hook, from Amazon.
She then allegedly used a third party to install the hook, which cost around £10, in his Surrey home.
Mrs MacIntyre was arrested at her home after the Irish journalist found the hook. Computers were then seized from her property.
‘Donal was shocked,’ a source told The Sun. ‘It looked totally innocuous but had a camera the size of a pinhead and was making digital recordings.’
Detectives are investigating how the device, which has a tiny lens concealed at the top and a microchip to record sound, was planted.
Mother-of-four Mrs MacIntyre is alleged to have bought two other items using her husband’s credit card without his permission.
She was also held on suspicion of possessing cocaine and perverting the course of justice. A second person was arrested.
Mrs MacIntyre, who denies the allegations, said last night: ‘You have no idea what’s going on.’
A source close to her added: ‘It’s beyond awful. These are serious allegations. It’s so damaging when she’s trying to rebuild her career.
‘The police want to know where the recorder’s come from. It’s up to them to get to the bottom of it.
‘The credit card was linked to the Amazon account, it had been on there for ten years.’
The couple, who were married for nine years and have three children, met at Turin airport in 2006 and tied the knot after a whirlwind threemonth romance.
But their marriage got into trouble after Mrs MacIntyre found messages on her husband’s phone that she likened to ‘ hardcore pornography’.
Mr MacIntyre denied he had been unfaithful and said his wife had misunderstood the series of text mesexploited sages she found on his mobile. His wife then turned detective, tracking his phone numbers and hiring a private investigator – who discovered the mystery woman.
The journalist eventually admitted the messages were for him but that nothing physical had happened. However, it did not prevent their marriage breaking down.
The couple went through a bitter break-up in 2015 and she publicly accused him of being ‘a lying, cheating scumbag’.
She said in an online rant: ‘ How could you ruin this beautiful family.’ The pair are now believed to be undergoing divorce proceedings.
In February 2017 Mrs MacIntyre revealed she was pregnant with the child of Russell Shotts, a former SAS soldier, and their son was born in the summer. Mr Shotts was previously married with three children but split from his wife, Emma, before starting the new relationship.
Mr MacIntyre has often been subjected to death threats after exposing criminals in BBC1 show MacIntyre Undercover.
During their marriage the couple moved house ten times in attempts to avoid enraged villains and football hooligan gangs targeted in the journalist’s TV series. The pair were viciously attacked by drinkers in a Surrey wine bar after they turned on Mr MacIntyre for helping to convict Chelsea football hooligans.
In 2001 he was berated for an undercover sting into model agency Elite that went wrong. In his £1.5million series, Mr MacIntyre claimed teenage girls were being sexually
‘Looked totally innocuous’ ‘Serious allegations’
by model agency executives but the BBC was forced to settle after the agency sued for libel.
Mr MacIntyre took part in reality show Dancing On Ice in 2009 and in 2014 he competed in The Jump.
He now presents CBS Reality series Donal MacIntyre: Unsolved.
Surrey Police said: ‘Two people have been arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation.
‘ Both individuals have been released whilst under further investigation. Surrey Police will neither confirm nor deny any details that would lead to the identification of any individual involved in an investigation prior to point of charge.’
Mr MacIntyre did not reply to a request for comment.