Claire Dent: Mum ‘used Apple tracker to stalk husband in child support row’

A mum stalked her estranged husband with a cheap Apple tracking device in an attempt to prove he was working in a row over child support.

Claire Dent fixed the Bluetooth-enabled AirTag gadget to husband Paul’s van to “gather evidence” over two months, a court heard.

The lightweight £35 (AUD$68) tags are designed to help users keep tabs on the location of items such as keys and wallets but have also been deployed as vehicle trackers since their introduction in 2021.

The devices have been the subject of a court case in Apple’s home state of California which claimed they “revolutionised the scope, breadth, and ease of location-based stalking”.

Magistrates heard Mr Dent was left “living in a state of anxiety” after his estranged wife began tracking his movements.

She had fixed the AirTag to the grill of their shared van with wire.

The court heard the 49-year-old defendant repeatedly showed up wherever Mr Dent was until he eventually noticed the wire while installing a spotlight on the vehicle.

Prosecutor Anisa Alrubaie said mother-of-one Dent had fitted the device to their shared van at the start of November last year.

The couple were going through a lengthy divorce and she was in a “difficult position” when it came to proving that Mr Dent – who runs a property maintenance business – was doing additional work, the court heard.

She claimed he was refusing to pay any child support or contribute to their shared mortgage.

Ms Alrubaie said Dent had turned up at locations across Hampshire where Mr Dent was working, until he found the device on December 29.

The prosecutor said of Mr Dent: “The surveillance and harassment had prompted a ‘great decline in his mental state’.”

She told Southampton magistrates Mr Dent “finds himself living in a state of anxiety and fear”.

Kevin Hill, defending, said Dent, of Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, recognised she had been “very foolish” and regretted the “very invasive act”.

She admitted a charge of stalking without causing fear or distress.

She has no previous convictions and will be sentenced in January.

In March, a judge in San Francisco denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the class-action lawsuit which alleges that it hasn’t done enough to stop stalkers using AirTags to track victims.