A former police officer accused of attacking his ex-wife with a makeshift electrical device and strangling her with an electrical cord took to spying on his family after the marriage broke down, a court has heard.
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The ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday heard Mark Leslie Anderson had taped conversations between his parents-in-law while he stayed with them soon after the relationship split.
The complainant, Catherine Green, also told the court she believed Anderson installed spyware on her computer and stole documents and mobile phones from her home.
Anderson is on trial on charges relating to the use of an offensive weapon, threatening to kill another person, burglary, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and breaching a protection order.
He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts. He is accused of attacking his former wife with a makeshift electrical device at a home in Farrer in June 2010. He then allegedly used an extension cord to try to strangle her and his hand to try to suffocate her.
Ms Green on Wednesday finished two days in the witness box in the judge-only trial before Chief Justice Terence Higgins.
The court heard the couple split in 2009 and a domestic violence order had been issued in May the following year.
Ms Green said the accused ''wouldn't let me leave him''.
During the family court battle before the alleged assault, she said documents, mobile phones and her diary would go missing and Anderson ''knew things he never should've found out''.
Ms Green said a computer expert checked her computer and discovered spyware and keystroke recognition software had been installed.
Anderson's father-in-law, John Green, told the court the accused had moved in with them for about 10 days when the couple first split.
The trial continues.
