Spurned lover built lair to spy on ex

Women's Refuge chief executive Heather Henare said the incident showed how far some men were prepared to go to control a relationship. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A man who built a hideout in his ex-partner's home to spy on her was displaying extreme psychopathic behaviour, Women's Refuge says.

The man, who has name suppression, was last week jailed for three years and seven months on 10 charges, which included assault, aggravated burglary, trespass and wilful damage.

The 25-year-old made a hidden lair under the staircase in the woman's Lower Hutt home, where he stored clothes, food and bedding as well as a number of weapons. He also made trapdoors so he could gain access throughout the house.

The man was discovered when another man came to visit the woman and the concealed man rushed out to launch an attack with a spade. Police arrested him later that day, still hiding under the woman's home.

Women's Refuge chief executive Heather Henare said the incident showed how far some men were prepared to go to control a relationship.

"Hiding and stalking in the house and hiding in the stairs is the absolute extreme end."

The man had a history of domestic violence. A month earlier, when they ended the relationship, police had barred the man from the woman's house after he arrived and lashed out at her.

The woman, who is five months pregnant with the offender's baby, told the Dominion Post she did not think her ex would have hurt her and she didn't believe he had been hiding for very long.

Henare said it was unfortunate the man did not get a very "significant" sentence and would probably be out of jail in about 18 months.

Kerrie Pihema, a private investigator who specialises in relationship investigations, said there had been a dramatic increase in stalking crimes.

"This whole area of stalking has added another dimension to private in-vestigators."

Pihema said in the Lower Hutt case, the crime had clearly been orchestrated.

"You can see there has been a lot of time and effort put into observing the ex-partner."

She said the services she and her team had been asked for had changed dramatically over the past 10 years.

"Bug sweeping, which is part and parcel of somebody thinking they are being stalked electronically; GPS tracking, to see if their vehicles are being tracked. We never used to be asked for those services." She also searched computers to look for spyware.

"If someone suspects that their ex-partner is coming around to the house in the evenings or on the weekends or at night, we'll put a surveillance team in and then we'll put an affidavit in for court."