'My husband used Fitbit to spy on me': Brave abuse survivor speaks out

‘My husband used Fitbit to spy on me and installed cameras in my bedroom’: Brave abuse survivor speaks out about her ordeal after spouse is handed a suspended jail sentence and a 10 year restraining order

• Christopher Bevan, 44, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour 
• His wife Kath said she was hounded with FaceTime calls and affair accusations
• She told court she felt ‘isolated, scared and alone’ due to her husband’s actions

A jealous husband who bugged his wife’s car with a tracking device and spied on her at home with ‘CCTV cameras in every room’ has been spared jail – as his victim bravely recounts the years-long ordeal that left her ‘looking like a scared little girl.’ 

Christopher Bevan, 44, was paranoid that his wife Kath was having an affair and hounded her with FaceTime calls to prove she was alone and even used her FitBit to keep tabs on her location, a court heard.

Bevan, of Pontarddulais, Swansea, pleaded guilty to engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour and was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting Kath. 

He was also ordered to attend a ‘building better relationships’ course and carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

Christopher Bevan, 44, was paranoid that his wife Kath (pictured) was having an affair and hounded her with FaceTime calls to prove she was alone and even used her FitBit to keep tabs on her location, a court heard

Bevan (pictured), of Pontarddulais, Swansea, pleaded guilty to engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour and was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting Kath

It came after police found a ‘significant number’ of electronic devices to monitor his wife’s movements including apps to monitor her phone movements, while the court heard how he would repeatedly call her when she was at work.

The couple married in 2012 but split eight years later after Kath finally had enough of her husband’s controlling behaviour.

Prosecutor Dean Pulling said she had been left ‘mentally and physically exhausted’ by the ordeal, which also saw her ‘banned’ from shopping on her own. 

Mr Pulling said Bevan was arrested in November 2020 when police found the hi-tech stalking. Swansea Crown Court heard that it was in March the following year that Mrs Bevan’s brother uncovered a tracking device on her car.

In a victim impact statement Mrs Bevan said she had been made to feel ‘isolated, vulnerable, scared and alone’ by her husband’s behaviour.

Helen Randall, defending, said Bevan accepted his behaviour was unacceptable and it could not be ‘explained or excused’.

Judge Catherine Richards told Bevan he used ‘multiple methods of control’ over his wife which were ‘incredibly intrusive’.

Bravely speaking out following the trial, Kath said things went south following the birth of their son in 2017 and after moving into their ‘forever home’. 

Bevan used a Fitbit device to track his wife’s whereabouts, a court head (stock image)

Prosecutor Dean Pulling said Kath (pictured) had been left ‘mentally and physically exhausted’ by the ordeal, which also saw her ‘banned’ from shopping on her own

She said she began to feel like a ‘house maid and nanny’ and ‘not a wife and mother’ after Bevan developed depression which worsened in 2018 and she received ‘no support or help’ from him while running the household. 

Kath said accusations of an affair were followed by a CCTV camera being installed in the kitchen to keep an eye on her on the one day a week she worked from home. 

She recalled to Wales Online: ‘Whilst in work I then started to receive ‘Find my iPhone’ notifications which at the time I didn’t take much notice of.

‘Then the harassment started with the numerous phone calls every day.’

She said she would receive a ‘bombardment of texts’ until she responded, and that during one evening while out with her girlfriends, Bevan rang her 50 times in 60 minutes. 

Kath said she would be cross-examined over affairs imagined by Bevan up to four times a day.  

She added: ‘Then CCTV cameras started appearing in every room of our house including our bedroom and the children’s room. The camera in our bedroom was focused on me sleeping in bed because he believed I was contacting someone whilst he was sleeping.

‘During the day time he was watching me changing, dressing and doing general household chores in our bedroom. I was stripped of all privacy not only in our bedroom but all around our house.

‘He even went to the extent of trashing our bedroom looking for ‘evidence’ of an affair and locking the downstairs windows as he believed I had men coming in through them.’

Kath said since leaving Bevan she has become ‘a stronger person and more importantly, a much happier person than I ever was’ 

Kath said Bevan was able to read her WhatsApp messages on his personal computer and that he installed an app designed for parents onto her mobile phone, meaning he was able to monitor all her texts, internet activity and social media use. 

She said she would get locked out of her social media accounts if Bevan thought she was on them for too long, making her ask his permission to be allowed to sign back in.  

‘It was at this point I realised that I was unable to communicate to friends or family without him being aware,’ Kath said, adding that she started to walk with her face to the ground out of fear she would make eye contact with someone and spark her husband’s paranoia. 

Friends then told her at her 40th birthday party that she looked like a ‘a scared little girl who had to sit quietly and not speak’.

Kath said since leaving Bevan she has become ‘a stronger person and more importantly, a much happier person than I ever was.’

She said she is ‘enjoying my new life’ and ‘looking forward to what the future brings’.  

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