When you are navigating a breakdown in a relationship, it can stir up a strong temptation to check your partner’s private emails. This article explores the legal and practical risks of accessing a partner’s email account, how the court may react, and how private behaviour can become flagged as coercive.
When you are navigating a breakdown in a relationship, it can stir up a strong temptation to check your partner’s private emails. This article explores the legal and practical risks of accessing a partner’s email account, how the court may react, and how private behaviour can become flagged as coercive.
Before the separation: Accessing emails in a relationship
When suspicion creeps in because you believe your partner is hiding assets, or engaging in an illicit relationship, the idea of going through their inbox might seem like a logical investigative step. But ask yourself: Is it illegal to read someone else’s email?
You might think that if you just check your spouse’s account for evidence of affairs, or invoices for assets you haven’t been told about, it’ll help your case. But under UK law this is particularly risky. According to one specialist family law firm, the simple rule is: do not be tempted to access private emails or documents belonging to your spouse or partner, whatever your suspicions.
Under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, it is an offence to access a computer system without authorisation. Even if you are married or in a long-term relationship, it doesn’t automatically give you consent to open their private inbox.
If you log in to your partner’s email without permission and download documents or communications, the email account owner could argue you breached their privacy/confidence. The court may exclude any evidence you gathered. In addition, you may expose yourself to criminal liability because accessing someone’s email could contravene the Computer Misuse Act.
During the divorce Process – accessing emails for hidden assets
Once divorce proceedings begin, the temptation to access a partner’s email intensifies: perhaps you think there are undisclosed bank accounts, business interests or correspondence proving non-disclosure of assets. But again, the question arises, is it illegal to read someone else’s email in this situation?
In divorce or dissolution of the financial aspects of a relationship, full financial disclosure is required. If you believe your spouse is hiding assets, you may be tempted to check their email for receipts, account statements or communications with accountants. Although the logic is understandable, the law doesn’t sanction unilateral hacking or unauthorised access.
A court may refuse to allow evidence that was obtained improperly. In one recent case, a wife was ordered to return documentation and was prevented from relying on it because of how it was obtained. The judge remarked that the removal of papers, even electronically, might involve offences such as theft or burglary and where information was downloaded from a computer, there may be criminal offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Data Protection Act 1998 (now replaced by the Data Protection Act 2018). So even if you find smoking gun evidence, you risk the court saying they’re ignoring it because of how it was obtained.
Risks of unauthorised email access
So what can happen if someone accesses their spouse’s email without permission? Is the act civil or could it attract criminal sanctions? Under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, unauthorised access to a computer system is an offence.
In addition, using spyware or remote apps to monitor a spouse’s communications can be prosecuted under other statutes such as the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 or even be viewed as coercive control. Even if no criminal prosecution is brought, the impact in the family court or other courts could be significant and is likely to have an extremely detrimental effect on your case.
Unauthorised access to a partner’s emails may form part of a pattern of controlling or coercive behaviour. Under the offence of coercive and controlling behaviour, any conduct that has a serious effect on a partner may be prosecuted. So if the email access is part of wider monitoring, surveillance or control of another adult, it could qualify as a criminal offence.
How judges/the court view such behaviour
Family courts assess conduct of the parties, not only in terms of legal rights but also in how they participate in the process, how they disclose their finances, and whether they act in good faith during the process. If you access emails covertly, that may reflect poorly on your credibility and your willingness to engage with the process fairly.
As noted earlier, evidence obtained by hacking or unauthorised access is often excluded, rendering it worthless, and risking your own credibility being shredded in the eyes of the court. Even if admitted, the judge may discount it on grounds of unfairness or impropriety. This means that the behaviour of accessing the email may undermine your own case rather than help it.
If the court finds one party has acted improperly, for example by invading the partner’s privacy, exercising coercive control or misbehaving during disclosure, it may influence the outcome. Judges have wide discretion in financial remedy proceedings and can adjust outcomes to reflect behaviour. While there is no punishment as such, poor conduct may weigh against a party.
Could email access be seen as coercive behaviour?
When one partner systematically monitors, controls or intrudes into the other’s digital communications, including emails, it crosses from mere suspicion or protecting your position into potential coercive or abusive behaviour.
During divorce or separation, if one partner accuses the other of monitoring their communications, it may lead to protective orders such as a non-molestation order being sought. In addition, the family court takes a dim view of such intrusion, and it may affect issues of child arrangements or financial remedies as the court considers the broader context of domestic abuse or control.
While the idea of accessing your spouse’s email may feel like a shortcut to the truth, it is almost always fraught with legal peril and, as we have seen, can even result in criminal prosecution. The better route to take is always the lawful one which protects your case and upholds your sense of personal integrity. If you are still in any doubt, a solicitor can guide you on how best to approach the temptation of reading your spouse’s emails.
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