‘Stalking law used to stop man exposing wife’s affair’

STALKING laws are being used to stop people discovering if their partners are cheating, a jilted husband has claimed.

Businessman Andrew Hunter, 41, was convicted of stalking his wife after he placed a listening device in her purse and a GPS tracker on her car.

He said he resorted to subterfuge because he suspected his wife of being unfaithful and wanted to gather information in a “non confrontational” way.

He discovered she had used a dating website to meet a man and when presented with the evidence she moved out with their two children.

Hunter later found himself charged with stalking offences. Despite admitting the offences at an earlier hearing, Hunter, back at Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced, said prosecuting him had been a misuse of the legislation.

After the hearing, he said: “The law was designed to protect women from being persistently followed and pestered by people who refuse to leave them alone. That wasn’t the case here.

“Within a relationship of course it is wrong to be controlling. That is never acceptable. But for a husband or a wife to take the very minimum amount of steps to reveal an affair and then stop? You could argue that it’s questionable whether that is legally unacceptable.”

His wife, Joanne, told the court his behaviour had been volatile and had left her self-esteem at rock bottom.

She said: “I am constantly looking in my rear view mirror to see if he is following me and checking my car for listening devices and tracking devices.”

Simon Walker, mitigating, said: “It could be argued a spouse trying to find out whether their fellow spouse is engaged in an affair through non violent means is a reasonable defence.” Hunter was given an 18-month restraining order and ordered to pay £485 costs.