Jealous wife who used envoy’s thumb to hack into phone as he slept

THE wife of a Foreign Office official used his thumbprint to unlock a phone as he slept because she thought he was having an affair.

When the furious diplomat woke up to discover his suspicious wife was combing through his supposedly secret messages a furious row broke out.

He was later arrested by police on suspicion of assaulting his wife after he supposedly struck her during an altercation over what she found in the messages.

The jealous spouse is thought to have hatched the plan after coming to suspect that her 40year-old husband was having an affair with a colleague.

As his phone was equipped with fingerprint technology that requires an exact match before a person can gain access, she allegedly waited until he was fast asleep.

The wife then pressed his thumb against the screen and was able to access dozens of messages, according to a report. Following the alleged earlymorning assault last month, the wife is understood to have received hospital treatment at a nearby hospital before phoning police the following day.

The official was arrested in front of aghast colleagues in his office after police had previously attended the couple’s apartment on a sprawling estate in Pimlico, London.

The diplomat, who is understood to be on leave from his role at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, reportedly gave a DNA sample and his fingerprints to police.

His mugshot was also taken at the London police station and an interview was conducted by officers specialising in domestic assault. He was later bailed.

A source told the Sun newspaper: ‘His wife was suspicious about whether he was having an affair. While he was sleeping, she took his phone and gently pressed his thumb on it to unlock it and read his messages.

‘A row developed and she ended up in hospital. She claimed he had beaten her.’

Although once seen as a gimmick, fingerprint scanners have become increasingly common on smartphones because of the added security they provide.

Many models, including iPhones, allow multiple fingerprints to be registered to each handset. As well as affording more security than a pin code to

She claimed he had beaten her

access the phone, the prints can also be used for other features, such as to authorise payments.

The Foreign Office refused to comment, saying it does not comment on ‘staff matters’.

A Met Police spokesman said: ‘Detectives from the Community Support Unit at Westminster are investigating an allegation of domestic assault.

‘On August 1, detectives arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of actual bodily harm. He has since been bailed to return to police on a date in mid-September.’