A Carlisle man who damaged his partner’s phone during a row over a tracking app he had secretly installed on the device has been sentenced in court.
David James Barlow, 46, came to the attention of police were alerted to an intoxicated woman on the city’s Botchergate who was asking to use a phone on the afternoon of July 27.
She stated she and Barlow had been together the previous afternoon and consumed alcohol. While the pair were in a kitchen, he started to accuse her of cheating on him, said he had been looking at the Find my iPhone app to see where she was and asked her where she had been.
The woman was not aware the app was on her phone. It had been installed without her permission, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard.
It was when she leaned to get the phone to call police that Barlow grabbed it from her hand and threw it out of the kitchen window causing the screen to smash — but he did apologise and they remained together that evening.
When arrested, Barlow was heard to say: “I swear down, when I get hold of her…”
When he appeared in court, Barlow, of the city’s Bellgarth Gardens, admitted a criminal damage charge.
His lawyer, Jeff Smith, said the couple remained an item and stated that Barlow had confessed to being an alcoholic.
District Judge John Temperley imposed a 12-month community order comprising rehabilitation, and ordered Barlow to pay a £100 fine. “You clearly need help,” the district judge concluded, “and you need to take it.”
