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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Something's not right here...

271 replies

Onedaysoon · 30/05/2007 10:27

I've had lots and lots of problems with H in the past; we split up for a while due to his controlling ways and general nastiness. He wore me down though and eventually I moved back in with the children.
He promised to make an effort, but to be honest nothing really changed, although he did tone down the abuse.
BUT...lately he's been spending an enormous amount of time and money on his mobile phone and is very secretive about it. For reasons I won't go into I have had suspicions about him for a while, so have been checking his phone (don't jump on me for that...I do have very good reasons for it), and discovered text messages from his mobile phone provider saying he was a VIP chat member. He is also topping his phone up EVERY night, by at least £10 per night, sometimes £20 per night, so is spending on average £70 per week - however we are in dire financial straits. He tops it up at 11.30 pm one night, 1.15 am another night...
I found another SIM card which he carries around with him and put it in my phone, and there were messages on there from presumably a woman, things like 'thanks, you're not bad yourself', and 'yes sorry but I'm up now and have to get ready for work'...nothing overtly flirtatious but still odd, not least because they are on a 'secret' SIM. he also has another mobile which he said he no longer uses, however he does becase he keeps that one in his car, it's always charged and he also tops that one up regularly.
We sleep separately so he can be on his phone all night; however, if I get up to go to the loo for instance I can guarantee that he will be on his phone but when I ask what he's doing he says he's playing games. I may well have believed him but for the fact that he has VIP membership to a chat room, and he's spending 10 - 20 pounds a night.
Now he's taken to keeping his phone on silent. The other morning I came down to find him asleep on the settee where he had had his phone on charge and fallen asleep in such a position that he could reach the phone whilst charging!
He's also always trying to get me and the kids out of the house; asking me to go to the shops for him, or 'do you want to go and get some fresh air for ten minutes' etc (I decline, and it was whilst I was away for the weekend a few weeks ago that he got these messages on his other phone...I said at the time that he was trying to push me into going away for that weekend!
Last night a message came through on his phone; it was on silent but the static on the pc gave it away...he said it was o2 saying his phone had been topped up, and that he had done it on his way home. However, I am with o2 also and whenever I top up the confirmation comes through immediately.
Sorry it's so long, but doesn't this all sound very suspect or am I being paranoid?
I can't confront him as the fallout of me 'snooping' on him would be catastrophic (there has been abuse in the past), and the marriage is over but I need concrete proof that he is messing about as, when I have asked him for a divorce in the past he has said that it's all my fault, or the kids' fault and has managed to make me feel that I am going mad!

OP posts:
Onedaysoon · 12/06/2007 11:21

I'm not allowed to change the locks as it's in joint names. he did it to me though some months ago. But had he continued to refuse me entry the council would have taken it further.

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Tortington · 12/06/2007 11:32

you would have to get the police to remove him.

you need to contact shelter for definitive advice.

its worth it.

Onedaysoon · 12/06/2007 11:44

Custardo, thanks for the website address. I just filled in the form which prompted me to call the tax credits office as I have recieved no income from them at all for months. I've not been getting any credits because of when we were in the refuge and I changed my calim to single parent but left before the claim was completed. So now I can re-apply and have it backdated 3 months so at least I'll have some money coming in!

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EllieG · 12/06/2007 14:23

Keep that money safe. And I agree with what custardo said, for what it's worth. Take steps, call police, get things moving. He's done enough now.

Onedaysoon · 12/06/2007 14:29

he has hasn't he?

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EllieG · 12/06/2007 14:39

YES! (that wasn't meant in a shouty way). You are worth so so much more than this.

Onedaysoon · 12/06/2007 15:18

Thought I;d throw another example in, just to get it off my chest really. I home ed my kids at the moment, but was planning on sending them back to school (their choice) at Easter. BUT...he wouldn't help me pay for their new uniforms; they need everything as it's a new school and i asked him to go halves with me. he said no, as they would only have one term left they could either go in non uniform (does he know nothing about bullying and needing to be part of things) or I could go and ask if they had any second hand ones at the school I could beg.
All I was asking for was around £100 which he said no to. Said he couldn't afford it. This from the man who spends £185 in 2 months on chat bloody rooms. So the kids can't go back to school til September.

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FairyOnTheChristmasTree · 12/06/2007 20:32

Hello onedaysoon, I've been following your post and my heart really goes out to you.

The feeling you get inside when you are being cheated on is awful.

Can you not get him evicted and then concentrate on making yours and the kids lives happy without him?

Are you going to confront him about the texts?

He sounds like such a lying, arrogant bastard. Men like him make my blood boil.

Take care onedaysoon...

Fairy x

Onedaysoon · 13/06/2007 07:02

Last nigth he decided we needed to go shopping, but in the middle of Asda our DD, who is only 2, wanted to hold a box of ice lollies (which I always let her do when I go shopping without him) and he said no, they had to go in the trolley. She's not well at the mo, smothering with a cold and feeling very weepy and she started crying, and ran after him to ask him again. Then, in the middle of the shop, he picked her up by the arm and swung her around out of his way and shouted at her. I was mortified and told him how dare he manhandle her like that, so then he wouldn't speak to any of us at all, and while I was still looking at frozen stuff he diesappeared and paid for the shopping he had, even though we only had half the stuff in the trolley that we needed. I was left looking like a prize idiot with other stuff in my hands which I had to put back!
Yes, I will confront him Fairy, absolutely. I just need to choose my moment. He'll go ballistic as it will be obvious I have looked very hard for info; the texts from the other woman were on a sim card which he doesn't keep in his phone, it's always tucked away in his wallet. I found it and Put it in my own phone to see what was on there that was so important that he needed a second sim card!

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Onedaysoon · 13/06/2007 07:12

Fairy, yes it's an awful feeling but for me it's the constant bare faced lying that gets to me so much. I can't lie to save my life but they're just rolling off his tongue one after another. He knows that honesty is absolutely top of my list and how hurt I get when people have deceived me. In fact he is always going on at the kids if he doesn't believe them when they say they didn't do something for instance 'you NEVER lie to your mother, you know how upset she gets when someone lies to her'. And yet, he's doing it himself. He's dragged me and the kids to hell and back for the past 4 years, and I finally escaped him and he pleaded with me to come back and give him another chance. Just so he could lie to me. I just don't understand.

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EllieG · 13/06/2007 08:55

If he's starting to manhandle the children it's getting too serious to stay. You need to contact the police, tell them and get him out today. Sorry if seem that am nagging but this will only get worse, and acting that way to a 2 year old is very bad.

Onedaysoon · 13/06/2007 15:11

FFS, whatever happened to female solidarity???? Last night I asked his ex wife about the debts he left her with, and asked her not to tell him I had been in touch. She told me he left her with £16k worth of debts, and that she wouldn't tell him. Guess what? This morning she text him saying 'tell your wife to sod off'!!!!!! What a cow. She knows the problems we've had, she knows about the abuse and yet she does this. I can't believe it. He's not told me yet which is very unnerving but I know he must be furious that I've spoken to her. How can one woman and mother do that to another woman and mother?

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Onedaysoon · 13/06/2007 15:11

And now I'm really worried about the repurcussions.

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EllieG · 13/06/2007 20:54

Oh hon are you OK? How is it this evening? Please call the police and get him out if he is trouble

Onedaysoon · 14/06/2007 07:02

Hi, well I confronted him last night. Took me ages to build up the courage, but I was determined not to rant and rave so I asked him straight out if he was using chat rooms on his phone. he said no. I asked had he ever used them, and he said no again and walked out of the room. I followed him and said that we needed to talk, and asked him to please tell me the truth as I knew what was going on but I had to hear it from him. He then denied it again, and then changed his story, saying he had gone into one ages ago, just to see what his phone did!(Bear in mind he has VIP membership which requires a monthly subscription). I asked how long ago, and he got flustered and kept saying ages, so I asked 'what, a month, 6 months, a year?' he said about a year, which is bull as he's only had this phone since January so yet another lie! I asked him had he ever exchanged phone numbers and/or teXt messages with another woman he had 'met' online and he said no, never. Outwardly I was so calm but inside I was seething as those texts on his other sim card, which he obviously thinks I don't know about, are from mid April. Then he said 'I don't know what you're getting so annoyed for anyway, even if I did chat in them, what's the big deal?'. I tried to explain that as he was lying, it was a big deal. That he was talking to other women but never had the time for me, that was a big deal. That we're sleeping apart but he spends his nights talking to other women is a big deal. he said 'we do talk'. I told him no we don't, not ever and he said 'well we never have time do we?'. That's also bull as whenever I've tried to talk to him he says either 'I'm watching telly' or 'I'm tired and not discussing this now'. But he's not too tired to chat in the early hours to someone else.
I told him that this was his last chance to come clean, as if he didn't I couldn't live with a liar and cheat and he said 'I've got nothing more to say on it, I'm not getting into an argument about it, conversation's closed'!!!!!
I never told him that I knew how much money he was spending, or that I knew he had another SIM card with texts on it, or that I had contacted this woman. I wanted him to tell me the truth. But he couldn't. Enough's enough.

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EllieG · 14/06/2007 09:00

Well done onedaysoon! You're quite right, enough is enough. So what's the plan now?

Onedaysoon · 14/06/2007 09:10

Ellie, I am going to try and get an appointment to see a solicitor tomorrow. I'm not going to bring it up tonight (easier said than done) and see if he has the balls to mention it, or come clean. Somehow I doubt it. On the other hand, I really want to see his reaction if I tell him I know all about his girlie (actually she's 44) who he was texting, and about all the money he tops up with etc. Not really sure what to do. What I do know is I feel a lot better. Last night I had to physically stop myself being sick where I have been so worked up over it, and then him lying to me. I don't take dishonesty well at all. But today I feel a lot better. I think I can see the start of a better life for me and the kids

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EllieG · 14/06/2007 09:40

Good idea. You're being so strong, you should be proud of yourself. This sounds like a really hard time but it's not forever, just keep thinking about that new life honey and focus on how sorted you and the kids will be.
Keep yourself safe and don't bring it up if you think will cause bug argmuents, and let us know how you get on with the solicitor!

Onedaysoon · 14/06/2007 10:20

Well, I have e mailed the solicitor I was originally with. I looked at his website and apparently he's a family law specialist; he didn't get me legal aid before but I wonder if it's worth trying him again, as he has a whole list of previous history on file already.
I've also e mailed a female solicitor who was recommended to me by the women's refuge, although she is much further away and it would be a bind to have to drive over there and see her every time whereas the other one is much closer to home. Guess it depends on who contacts and can see me first?
Wish me luck.

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EllieG · 14/06/2007 10:52

Have everything crossed for you and am sending out lots of strong and positive vibes xxx

Onedaysoon · 14/06/2007 15:43

When he came home I aksed him did he have anything to add after last night, he said no, and if he wants to go in chat rooms it's up to him and none of my business!!! I asked how did he think it acceptable to text women and he said 'how do you know it's women' to which i replied, well why don't we ask **, the nurse in newcastle? (she's the one who's texts I found and spoke to). He was totally shocked and stormed off in his car! What planet is he on?????

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EllieG · 14/06/2007 16:08

Hurray for you! DON'T let him play any stupid mindgames when he comes back. He is a tosser and will try and twist things but this is NOT your fault it's him

Onedaysoon · 14/06/2007 17:53

Not back yet! He's going to be really stewing!

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EllieG · 14/06/2007 21:23

Is he back yet? Are you OK?

Jennylee · 14/06/2007 23:26

Are you okay hope it calms down a bit and he tells the truth

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