Aussie PIs Hope to Keep No-Fault Divorce Precendent

Picture this: a husband so desperate to escape an unhappy marriage that he commits fraud to "expose" himself in an act of infidelity. He hires a prostitute to act as his lover and a private investigator to burst into a motel room and photograph them in flagrante delicto.

Australia's private investigators can recall the boom days of a seedy, sordid business, when a spouse would go to such extremes to get a divorce. Until the arrival of no-fault divorce laws in 1975, a marriage could not be dissolved unless one spouse was found, in effect, to be the guilty party. Commonly it was for adultery, more often for desertion. Otherwise cruelty, drunkenness, imprisonment or insanity might be grounds for divorce.

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Woman Who Set Husband's Genitals Afire Charged with Murder

An Australian-Indian woman who set her husband's genitals afire for alleged infidelity has been charged with murder.

Rajini Narayan, 44, allegedly doused her husband Satish with a flammable liquid while he was sleeping December 8. Satish jumped out of bed after being set ablaze and knocked over the substance, causing the fire to spread.

Rajini told an Adeliade court that she wanted to punish her husband for his alleged infidelity and did not mean to kill him.

Read the rest of the story at The Times of India.

Cheating Husband Jailed for Torturing Mistress; Wife Kept in the Dark

As Sumanathasa Vettivel stood before Geelong County Court yesterday, his wife remained unaware of her husband's affair, the charges against him or his court appearance.

Vettivel's lawyer, Alan Marshall, told Judge Geoffrey Chettle his client had hoped "to get through it all without his wife finding out".

The court heard that during the four-year-affair, Vettivel put a hot iron on his lover's nose, beat her knee-caps with a tyre lever, slammed a glass bottle over her knuckles and threatened to chop her up in little bits and flush her down the toilet.

Bug's Life a Busy One as Lovers Get Suspicious

Sydney is in the grip of an infidelity epidemic, with more than 1000 people a month wanting to monitor their partner's every word and move. At least, that's what private investigators would have you believe.

According to one, Luke Athens, suspicious spouses are spending thousands of dollars to have tracking boxes fitted under cars, their partner's deleted text messages read and gifts delivered with cameras and listening devices hidden inside. He said yesterday he cannot keep up with demand. "I don't know what is going on out there, but business is absolutely booming."

His company, Heartbreakers, carries out sweeps for listening devices on Sydney homes every week and says one in five come up positive. He says people are buying bugs on eBay for as little as $120 and hiding them behind powerpoint covers or in light fittings. It is not illegal to buy or own bugs but it is illegal to use them without the consent of the person being bugged.