Woman's neighbour caught on camera trying to remove secret listening devices he planted in her house

2022-10-02 4

A woman has told how her neighbour was caught on camera trying to remove secret listening devices he planted in her house - including one on her BED. William Nolan, 59, and his wife were trusted with a key to neighbour Debbie Wearing-Jones' home, in Erdington, Birmingham, so they could feed her two cats while she was away. Debbie, 64, was horrified when she found a voice recorder taped under her coffee table - and then another behind the headboard in her bedroom. The widow turned detective and set up covert webcams to catch the rogue who came to collect the recording kit. The OAP sleuth also carefully hoovered her carpet in one direction to capture the snooper's footprints. When grandma-of-one Debbie watched back the footage she caught Nolan in her home, retrieving the spyware recorders, and called the police. Former security guard Nolan admitted stalking without fear, alarm or distress and was jailed for 15 weeks at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on May 25th 2020. The judge described the case as one of the most serious 'stalking' offences he had ever seen. Brave Debbie - who is speaking out to raise awareness of the seriousness of stalking - said: "I felt totally violated - Bill's trade is CCTV and security and things like that so that was also worrying. ''To this day I worry thinking was there anything else planted? "I still don't know whether there is. "I felt uncomfortable putting my underwear out in the garden, just the thought of him watching. "I want to make people aware that you can’t trust anyone - after being neighbours for 30 years, being widowed, and then him doing this to me." The retired practice manager lived next door to father-of-four and grandfather-of-two Nolan, in Erdington, Birmingham, for about 30 years. Nolan had a spare key to Debbie's house, so his family could feed her cats, Bellamy and Sami, when she visited her partner in Nottingham, East Midlands, every week. She was having dinner at her home with her partner, 64, when he found a black plastic box under the table, held by double sided tape, on November 7th 2020. It had a microphone and an on/off switch, with a port where a USB cable could be connected, in order to access the recorded audio data. The next day they Debbie reported the discovery to West Midlands Police, but was told with no sign of forced entry, she would need further evidence. Debbie then raced to the shop to buy some cameras to try and catch the stalker. She told Nolan's wife that she would be out on Thursday afternoon until Friday morning, and left home. And just half an hour later, her male neighbour was recorded frantically searching for his missing devices.