A former community policeman accused of checking his wife’s phone messages and emojis because of his “jealousy and possessiveness” and planting a GPS tracker in the boot of her car objected to being tracked himself.

A leg tag for the probation service to monitor his movements had been suggested as part of his punishment.

Ex-community bobby Mark Howell-Walmsley, aged 58, of Capel Curig, in Snowdonia, had changed his plea to guilty after Sharon McCaig began giving evidence in a trial.

He’d previously denied controlling or coercive behaviour between November 2019 and March last year.

The prosecution said he required her to make her mobile phone available for inspection, insisted on accompanying his wife on the school run, demanded photographic proof of her visiting her elderly mother in Cheshire, and placed the tracker in the car to follow her movements.

Miss McCaig, who ran a small shop as an artist at Llanberis, said they had been in a relationship since 2015 and married in May 2017.

But there had been a “series of issues” with Howell-Walmsley’s behaviour.

His “possessive and controlling” conduct kept her awake at night and he became “more irrational.” He’d make accusations against her.

The defendant had insisted that his wife remove her mobile phone password and he checked messages. “He wanted to know everything I did on my phone. I had nothing to hide,” she told a jury at Mold crown court in April.

Questioned by prosecutor Simon Mintz, Miss McCaig remarked in evidence: "It was just awful. I felt completely trapped.”

She added: "I was very anxious and became very scared of him.”

Eventually Miss McCaig had told her husband she wanted a divorce. But in March last year he had turned up at a Tesco supermarket at Bangor.

Mr Mintz told the jury she hid in the cafe and called the police who found Howell-Walmsley in the car park.

The defendant said he had followed his wife, because he thought she was having an affair, and officers found the tracker.

Howell-Walmsley said he planted it about a month before because he was looking for proof of the alleged cheating. He also accepted turning up at Aber, near Bangor, in February.

His behaviour had a “damaging” effect on the victim’s health, the prosecution said.

“The last few years have been the worst of her life,” Mr Mintz said at the sentencing hearing today.

Barrister Elen Owen, for Howell-Walmsley, told the judge: "There’s ongoing, very expensive, acrimonious divorce proceedings.”

He had significant mental health problems and it wasn’t the most serious of the type of offence.

Counsel urged the judge not to order her client to wear a leg tag as part of his sentence. He now sold expensive climbing boots and it would cause him difficulties and embarrassment in his job.

“This is a very draconian step,” the lawyer argued.

“There are many other ways the probation service could keep tab on his movements, if they need.”

Judge David Hale imposed a 15 months suspended jail term with rehabilitation.

But he said: "I am not going to include the tag because I am not sure the suggested reason for it took into account the problems it would cause you in your employment.”

Judge Hale told Howell-Walmsley: "As a mature man with the life experiences you have had, the last thing you should be doing is finding yourself having pleaded guilty to a serious offence such as this and facing a prison sentence.”

The judge said there was no indication he understood the harm he had done, in the pre-sentence report. “It’s all ‘me, me, me.”

Judge Hale said: "You have harmed her. You have seriously upset her, frightened her and worried her by your totally unnecessary conduct. This had all the makings of a happy relationship but you became so suspicious, so controlling, that it had to fail.”

He told him he suspended the jail term for two years “because of the more positive side of your character.” A restraining order was made.