Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Relationships

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

Found out husband has Hidden phone in bedroom to record me..

248 replies

Failing366 · 03/05/2020 15:20

Well the title says it all really, my husband has been hiding a second phone in the bedroom to record me...

Backstory.. we've been together for 17 years, 3 children. We've had our issues over the years, the main one being around 5 years ago I got close to an old friend, only via messages we never met up or saw each other, i won't lie and say there wasn't sexual talk because there was but it was more having someone to talk to who I guess gave me attention. Husband found out by logging into my Facebook/ messenger and it caused a lot of trouble, we talked and decided the marriage was worth saving and apart from one incident a few months after I stopped contact with the other guy every things been fine, that inicident was him hiding his phone under our bed to record me on the phone, we discussed how that was out of order and to be honest it hasn't been mentioned again..

Fast forward five years...

Just before Xmas I'd visited my family and when I came home I noticed all my things had been looked through, like drawers all messy jewelry boxes moved, just really obvious someone had been going through my things, I asked him and he denied doing it, the next day when j went up to bed I saw a reflection in the glass on his drawers, it was his phone, hidden on a shelf at the top of our bed and it was recording, the voice recorder on.. tbh I didn't do anything that night, but over the next few days things were frosty, he eventually texted me to ask what was wrong and I'd told him that I'd found his phone recording and he denied all knowledge, said it must have been a mistake, I made a point of saying how it made me feel so disrespected and that it was out of order recording me and he again said he hadn't, well things slowly got back to normal until I got an notification saying someone had logged into my Facebook and messenger, I was able to log him out, I know it was him as it says the phone and where they are, anyway I logged him out and confronted him, he denied it being him, swore blind he didn't do it..

So over the last few months I've been finding blobs of bluetac stuck to our bed, always on my side, tbh it's had me paranoid, I know he's been recording me but I've not had the proof until last night when I found his phone stuck to the bed with the voice recorder on..

Well I kinda lost it, I'll admit, I took his pillows and his phone downstairs and told him the sofa was his new home.. yet again I asked why he thought he could record me and how upset it makes me that he's been doing it and denying so, he barely said anything, just the usual, firstly he denied it, he did end up admitting it but no reasons..

I asked if it were a sexual thing, I dunno some new kink which is totally unacceptable but it would explain and he said it wasn't.. he won't give any reasons why he's doing it or even acknowledge how upset I am by this..

Am I over reacting? Is it acceptable to record your wife without her knowledge?

I find it so disrespectful and I'm hurt that he's obviously been doing this for months now, I have absolutely nothing to hide, since the situation five years ago I hand on heart haven't spoken to another man, I mean I don't even really have friends as the one friend I did have he used to show up at the coffee shop when we would meet, I feel like Im so seperated from friends and family for him and he still thinks it acceptable to record me.. I don't even feel safe in my own home now, I feel paranoid that he's recording me in other places than the bedroom..
What can I do? What reasons does he have for doing this?

OP posts:
LexMitior · 05/05/2020 08:04

What do you think he will do now?

A) Stop

B) Carry on

C) Get worse

You know it’s the last two. Please think about your own safety. Recording you even not for voyuerism is wrong; it likely amounts to a form of coercive control. He’s let you know that he is doing it. He even hints at it.

If you don’t raise this with the police, and you do separate, you won’t be able to raise it. It will mean nothing. Any dispute re the children, then it won’t count.

If you don’t want to stay with this man then you need to think ahead. I know this is upsetting but believe me he is thinking like this. He knows what he has done is wrong. He’s wiped his phone. He’s aware you are thinking about it and acted accordingly. Please start thinking of yourself and care less about what it may look like to the police.

pickingdaisies · 05/05/2020 08:51

Yes I'm thinking like Lexmitior, I think he put the phone there knowing it was likely you'd eventually find it, and that gave him a kick. The longer he got away with it, the more superior he felt. But now the game's up. He probably thought he could bamboozle you into accepting it and carrying on, like you did last time you found out. Only this time you've seen through his nonsense.

mysticmeg1922 · 05/05/2020 09:22

Hi op .i hope your ok , I honestly think by reading your messages that he's like this because of the other man . People can be so normal before trust is broken but then obviously they turn insecure. "
People do get over it and move on but it's always there , your husband hasn't got over it and it's got worse . It's made him severely paranoid. He definitely needs counciling. I wouldn't give up on the marriage just yet . But he has to agree to go and seek help, it's not normal behaviour. Has he got any ocd issues you know about ? I'd smash his phone up and every phone I found hidden. He'd soon stop it . Get one step ahead of him and film him hiding the phone one night . Show him and maybe just by watching his actions it will knock some sense in to him . A man this paranoid is t just bidding a phone to listen to you . I'd say he's doing a lot more x

Failing366 · 05/05/2020 10:45

@em90792 thank you for sharing your story, I'm sorry all that has happened to you, I fear you're right in saying perhaps I don't want to see this for what it is, a form of abuse.. I'm really struggling at the moment,, I just want to understand why he feels he can do this to me but I don't think he'll ever explain enough for me to understand, that makes me really sad..
Perhaps I'm too meek and mild, perhaps k am a pushover or perhaps I've just been ignorant to the signs that have been there for a long time..

@LexMitior I know you're right it will carry on, I do know that deep down but believing and doing something about it are different things, I know deep down k need to go to the police I do know that even though it's not what I want to do I know I need too.

OP posts:
Failing366 · 05/05/2020 10:52

After he left for work earlier I spent some time properly looking through the phone, as I said it has been wiped so no recovery software will work on it, I've tried a few, I have suspissions he may have been using a memory card and he may still have that, I also feel he is keeping it in his car as last night after I demanded the phone he went outside for what I assumed was a cigarette but now I'm thinking as he came straight upstairs and threw the phone on the bed that he has infact gone and gotten it from his car.
Anyway as I was trying to recover anything from the phone I was searching every part of the phone checking everything and I'm not sure if I've found something, there seems to be two screenshots of what I think is him listening to voice recordings, it looks like he's adjusted the volume and accidentally screen shotted what was on the screen, it's nothing I know well nothing that could be used but I feel it shows there were things in the phone and that he did in fact wipe it to hide those things..
As my account here isn't 48 hrs old I can't post photos but as soon as I can I will post what I've found as I'd love some opinions on it as I worry it's nothing and I'm just jumping to conclusions..

OP posts:
FizzyGreenWater · 05/05/2020 11:13

I would take the phone to the police, along with your recording of him admitting he had done it.

Honestly, you are thrashing around 'in the mud' with him trying to win - but you actually have the winning card in your hand already. You go to the police.

IAmReportingYouForBBQing · 05/05/2020 11:16

Believe me, the police CAN recover things that have been deleted from the memory. Deleted doesn't mean gone, it simply means that the file can not be seen but can now be over written. It's still there, providing he hasn't recorded and over written the files.

FizzyGreenWater · 05/05/2020 11:17

Believe me, the police CAN recover things that have been deleted from the memory.

Yes. They can.

Go to the police.

TorkTorkBam · 05/05/2020 11:41

It is his work phone so you will have to give it back to him. Keep a note of the number though.

What do you want to happen now?

PrimeroseHillAnnie · 05/05/2020 11:49

ravenmum, totally agree. He simply doesn't trust you.

Failing366 · 05/05/2020 12:15

@TorkTorkBam it's hard to explain but it's a work phone but not a work phone, it's an internal store phone that he's obviously taken as it's either been replaced or not used anymore, he wouldn't need to return it though part of me wonders if they know he took it

OP posts:
HappyHammy · 05/05/2020 12:20

Just keep the phone and focus on planning a life without him. You have started looking through the financed which is great. You need copies of bank accounts and stuff like that.

0DETTE · 05/05/2020 12:21

He might have put the device back to factory settings. I think the OP said that he works in security or IT.

Failing366 · 05/05/2020 12:44

@ODETTE yes he has restored it to factory settings and I've tried a few recovery software apps but nothing will work, if it's restored what ever was on there is gone.. I suspect he knew that as yes he does have a security background though doesn't work in that field now

OP posts:
Failing366 · 05/05/2020 12:48

@HappyHammy yes I've been on the CMS calculator today too and reading up more about what I'd be entitled too, I'll be honest I'm shocked, I'm starting to see that me and the children can have a life without him. I know it goes against what others feel I should do but right now my focus is on planning a future for myself and the children and getting him gone from the family home, I am not leaving, I have 3 children with autism, 2 living at home and they can not be uprooted or deal with any changes that drastic, I am their career and I will do everything to ensure he leaves the family home, after all this is all his doing, I know I should involve the police but my mind isn't fully made up about that as I need to focus on getting this marriage ended first..

OP posts:
T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 05/05/2020 12:55

OP, you won’t get him out UNLESS you involve the police. What he did is a form of abuse and this might be your only or best chance to get him out. At least ring them and talk it through with them.

IAmReportingYouForBBQing · 05/05/2020 14:07

I'm pretty sure the police have the proper software to restore the files that were on the phone. Plenty of IT experts have been prosecuted for accessing abuse pictures on the dark web etc despite deleting their filthy files.

Op, hoe sure are you that he didn't email all the files to himself? That he hasn't uploaded the sound of your masturbating and orgasming onto a website for peeping Toms and voyeurs? You have said yourself that you have no idea who this person is that you are married too but you don't even seem to want to know the truth about what he has actually done.

I get it. You are scared to make it real. But how are you ever going to heal when you don't even know what injuries he may have caused you? You don't know for sure that he hasn't filmed you. Or your kids. He has already shown that he has no scruples when it comes to boundaries. And he's just sleeping on the couch and you are relying on him not perving or wanking over you while you sleep.

He has no intention of letting you know what was on that phone. Answer honestly..... why do you think that is? What was on there that was SO bad that he had to delete the lot?

Find your anger, your sense of justice or self worth or whatever you need to call it and go to the police. This man is a SEX OFFENDER. That's what they call people that secretly record others for their own sexual kicks.

HappyHammy · 05/05/2020 14:22

Getting him out of the house is not always easy. Its his home too and you need evidence to show the Courts if he refuses to go. Is it owned with a mortgage or rented. You really need legal advice. He may well turn round and say its all your fault because of a past emotional affair. The Courts may well decide who owns what, who pays what and child visitation.

Countryboy1 · 05/05/2020 15:04

So, things are rapidly deteriorating....whether or not you feel you want to go to the police...surely at this point you have no option. You really must do so....in your own words you are realising that you don't know this man or what he is capable of. You are just scratching the surface. I can bet there's a whole lot more to this vile man than you can imagine. Go to the police. ASAP. I wish you the best OP.

brassbrass · 05/05/2020 15:08

Well he's using a work device for non work related nefarious purposes. He can still get into trouble for that no?

HappyHammy · 05/05/2020 15:17

I hope it all works out safely for you. Atm you dont have much evidence of what he has been doing except a workphone that has nothing on it. You really need legal and police support and advice. You and you dc need to be kept safe.

TorkTorkBam · 05/05/2020 15:41

He has admitted spying on you in your text exchanges. That's good. Try to draw more out of him in texts. Including an admission that it was a work phone, including that you caught him recording you years ago and told him to stop it. His messages are the next best thing to police.

Failing366 · 05/05/2020 15:58

@TorkTorkBam good idea, we seem to do all our communication via text so that shouldn't be too hard lol
Seriously though I think it's good advice, over the next few days I'm sure we'll talk more about it and how to move forward from it so I'll try to get as much in text as I can

OP posts:
BackseatCookers · 05/05/2020 16:00

@torktorkbang is spot on - gather some messages where he takes accountability for these things. Thanks

Failing366 · 05/05/2020 16:00

So now I can post photos.. this is the phone..

Found out husband has Hidden phone in bedroom to record me..
OP posts: