The Court of Appeal has ruled that files of evidence obtained by stealth by a wife must be returned to her ex-husband.
The Court considered that the breach of confidence of the copying could not be condoned because at the time it occurred, the wife only feared that her husband would fail to make a full and frank disclosure when the divorce proceedings progressed. It was ‘not open to her to pre-empt consideration of the husband's disclosure'. Also, she failed to promptly disclose to her then husband that she had copied the files.
Accordingly, the documents were required to be handed back to the ex-husband.