Husband hid an iPhone in wife’s car to track her

AN obsessive husband hid a mobile phone under the bonnet of his estranged wife’s car to track her movements – but was caught when it started ringing as she drove to the shops.

Businessman Kevin Gallagher, 39, used a tracking app downloaded onto the iPhone to monitor the whereabouts of 37-year-old Rachael Harvey.

But he forgot to put it on silent, and the shop worker and her teenage daughter were baffled to hear the unfamiliar ringtone coming from inside the car.

After failing to find the source of the noise themselves, Miss Harvey’s daughter Morgan, 18, took the Renault Clio to a garage, where a mechanic found the iPhone near the engine under a covered metal section.

It emerged that Gallagher, who runs a property management firm, had been keeping his wife under surveillance whenever she was out, sometimes unexpectedly turning up wherever she was.

The incident was the culmination of a four-month stalking campaign by the father of one, during which he also bombarded his wife with text messages, intimate pictures and photos of her sleeping in various stages of undress, a court heard.

He admitted a charge of stalking but fled before he could be sentenced, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The couple, from Urmston, Greater Manchester, married in February 2010 and had a son Controlling: Kevin Gallagher together but their relationship was tempestuous, the court heard. Miss Harvey, who has three children from a previous relationship, said her husband was ‘violent and caused distress’ and they split up last year.

‘Mr Gallagher would rip her clothes off of her, punch her which caused an injury to her ribs and gave her a black eye,’ prosecutor Eileen Rogers told Manchester magistrates.

‘She has said that he was very controlling, and would ask her who she was with and where she was going and continued with this behaviour even during the time she was pregnant.

‘His controlling behaviour continued so that she did not go out with her friends any more. She said that she was not mentally strong enough to leave him.’

Eventually, the court heard, Miss Harvey told him she did not want him to return to their home. ‘The break up was amicable at first, but then he continually called and messaged her, 43 times, messaging her and trying to consistently follow and contact her on social media and her friends, refusing to accept that the marriage was over,’ said Miss Rogers.

‘He sent her images of his private parts and pictures of her sleeping in stages of undress. She contacted the police.’

The iPhone was discovered on December 28 last year. ‘[Miss Harvey and her daughter] heard a phone ringing but they could not find where the noise was coming from,’ said Miss Rogers.

‘The ringtone did not match any of the occupants in the car. A mechanic at the garage found in a covered metal section of the car a black iPhone.’

The prosecutor added: ‘Another black iPhone was found concealed in a sock and these phones...were used by Mr Gallagher to track his partner and her daughter when they travelled in the car, and he would turn up at the venue where he knew she was.’

The court heard Gallagher had previous convictions for violence, including common assault on Morgan last December. Both she and her mother sought restraining orders against him. In mitigation, Jeremy Spencer said Gallagher was still dealing with the death of his mother 18 months ago, and that he worked 14-hour days in a ‘competitive’ field.

‘Refused to accept that it was over’