A man in Taiwan has been sentenced to five months in prison for unlawfully recording private images of his wife after using a robot vacuum cleaner to spy on her.
The man first became suspicious of his partner after discovering a toothbrush and other toiletries at their home that he knew belonged to neither one of them. He then caught an unknown man driving his wife home from work on CCTV.
Robot vacuum used to monitor wife
According to local reports, the suspicious husband worked out a way he could monitor his wife without her knowing by peeping on her using the family's high-tech robot vacuum cleaner. The gadget boasted a live audio and video feed normally used to ensure that the whole house gets cleaned.
To his horror, the vacuum showed his wife and another man getting intimate while he was out of the house. According to the South China Morning Post, the court heard how footage from the device showed the wife dressing and undressing. It was also said to have captured her lover lying fully naked on their sofa, with one alleged romp even taking place on Christmas Eve.
Civil and criminal cases
The husband decided to sue, with Taiwanese civil courts finding the wife guilty of infringing his marital rights. The unfaithful pair was ordered to pay him NT$500,000, around £12,500.
However, in a twist, the wife counter-sued over the robot vacuum footage, claiming that her husband had broken the law by recording her naked without her permission. Taiwanese law makes it a criminal offence to secretly record or share someone's private activities or intimate information without their consent.
Sentence and appeal
The man, whose name has been kept anonymous by the courts, has been sentenced to five months in prison and fined NT$150,000, around £3,700, for unlawfully recording private images.
He is believed to be appealing the verdict, according to local reports. It is not known whether the wife and her extramarital lover are still together.
