“Totally violated”: Woman discovers neighbour of 30 years had hidden listening devices inside her home, including behind the headboard

A woman from Erdington has spoken out about the moment she discovered her neighbour of 30 years had been secretly planting listening devices inside her home. As detailed by LADbible, the situation began to unravel on November 7, 2020, when Debbie Wearing and her partner were having dinner at her home and stumbled upon a black plastic box taped underneath the table. Debbie initially thought it might be one of her grandson’s toys, but a quick search confirmed it was a voice recorder.

The discovery prompted a frantic search of the rest of the house, which led to the finding of another recording device hidden behind the headboard of her bed. Debbie contacted West Midlands Police the following day, but authorities said they needed more evidence as there were no signs of forced entry.

Debbie had trusted her neighbour, William Nolan, and his wife with a spare key to her home in 2020 so they could feed her cats while she was away. After her husband passed away in 2019, she had viewed Nolan as a safe and helpful presence in her life, describing him as a lovely, polite man. Looking back, she recalled that a few months before finding the devices, Nolan had moved his own CCTV camera without asking so that it faced directly into her garden.

The crime clearly went far deeper than a misuse of a spare key

To gather the evidence police needed, Debbie took matters into her own hands. She purchased spy cameras, set them up inside her home, then told Nolan’s wife she would be out for a while. About half an hour after she left, her cameras caught Nolan entering the property and frantically searching for the devices he had previously planted.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Debbie said: “When I found the spyware I felt totally violated. Bill’s trade was CCTV and security and things like that so that was also worrying.” She also described the psychological toll the invasion took on her daily life, stating she felt uncomfortable hanging her underwear outside and no longer felt safe in her own home, eventually deciding to move out. Amid a wider conversation about neighbour conduct and privacy violations, a Florida girlfriend killing case also drew renewed attention to how those in close proximity can pose the most serious threats.

Debbie said the experience left her with persistent questions she still cannot answer. “Questions run through your mind constantly but my biggest one was ‘why me?,'” she said. “To this day, I still don’t know why he did it. For me, for somebody to put a recording device on your headboard, there’s only one reason why they want to do that and that’s a sexual reason.” She added that the incident showed that danger can come from people you have known and trusted for years.

Stalking, as defined by Victim Support, is fixated, obsessive, unwanted, and repeated behaviour that causes a person to feel pestered, harassed, or fearful of violence. It can build gradually over time, making it difficult for victims to recognise they are caught in an ongoing campaign of abuse.

Nolan eventually pleaded guilty to stalking in 2021, and amid a string of notable court decisions that year, a judge sentenced him to eight weeks, a ruling Debbie publicly criticised as inadequate. In a separate case drawing attention to how courts handle sensitive evidence, a judge released Epstein’s hidden note concealed inside a graphic novel.

Nolan died in 2024 at the age of 61. The National Stalking Helpline is available for anyone experiencing persistent and unwanted attention at 0808 802 0300.