Jilted ex-husband hacked former wife’s email to track her down, court told

A jilted ex-husband hacked his former wife’s email for Uber receipts to track her down and approached her as she went to work, a court has heard.

A jilted ex tracked down his former partner by hacking into her emails and finding her address on Uber receipts, a court has heard.

The 38-year-old man was last month sentenced in the District Court after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated threat to kill and three counts of theft.

In sentencing, Judge Patrick O’Sullivan said the former couple’s relationship broke down after the man discovered the woman had been unfaithful.

The man, who The Advertiser has chosen not to name to protect his victim’s identity, initially moved out in June 2020 but returned a month later and began to physically abuse the woman who attempted to end the relationship several times.

A few months later, in October 2020, he asked the woman to cook for him but she instead began using her phone so he punched her back and neck and pulled her hair,

After that incident, the woman contacted family and police and moved out of the home.

“Over the following weeks, in an attempt to locate her, you contacted her work and accessed her emails to view her Uber receipts, which revealed her address,” Judge O’Sullivan said.

The following day, he ambushed her at the bus stop as she walked to catch a bus to work.

He demanded she get into his car, where he stole her phone and bank cards which he used to make purchases and money transfers totalling more than $4000, including one for more than $2200 to tech company Dell Australia.

After a subsequent visit from police, the man bombarded the woman over three days with 24 phone calls and 33 “foul and threatening” emails, one of which included a threat to kill.

Judge O’Sullivan said a sworn affidavit revealed the woman was “scared and she felt that you were controlling her”.

He described the man’s offending as “sustained, violent and targeted”.

“The complainant was entitled to feel safe and secure. Instead she was subjected to your offending behaviour which included sending her a degrading and threatening email such that she feared for her life,” he said.

Judge O’Sullivan said acts of domestic violence were “simply unacceptable“.

“Domestic violence is a scourge and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,” he said.

He jailed the man for two years and 10 months with a non-parole period of one year and eight months.