Under Surveillance

The household spy-tech market is booming, from nanny cams to ‘Big Mother’ teen monitors. But what about when the motives aren’t so pure? Here, one woman recounts how discovering a tiny device in her bedroom tipped her into a nightmare of doubt

- Kirstie Clements

MET CHRIS* FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AGO. I’d moved down from Canberra and had been living in Melbourne for a few months. He left a beautiful note on my car with his name and details. My brother knew him; he worked in sales. I did my research and he was seemingly a nice guy. Even so, I was careful. We met for the first time in a public place. He was from the country, a wholesome single dad with family morals. I scrutinised him for a long time. I met his friends. This was a decent guy, I thought.

We were friends for about a year, gradually developing a romantic connection. He was totally different to any man I’d ever dated. My family and friends loved him. I loved him. We got engaged about a year and a half later. We bought a house and moved in together; everything was going well. We were also going through a major custody battle over his youngest daughter, which had been happening for the bulk of our relationship. It was complex and it took a lot out of both of us, but I thought it was making us stronger.

By March, we’d finally got the court case out of the way. That was the reason we hadn’t got married. It was all going to happen this year; we had plans to get life back on track. Then, in April, I was innocently hiding his birthday present in our bedroom cupboard and I came across a strange little black box. It had a memory card, a lens and a record button. I googled “black box camera”. It was a video camera, I learnt. With night vision.