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It’s a case that could strike fear into the hearts of snooping spouses.

A Michigan man who logged into his wife’s email to discover she was having an affair could face up to five years in prison under anti-hacking legislation.

Computer technician Leon Walker, 33, is charged with opening his wife Clara’s Gmail account, reports the Detroit Free Press.

In looking through her emails, Walker discovered that Clara, who had been married twice previously, was having an affair with her second husband, a man arrested for beating her in front of her son and first husband.

Walker passed on the emails to the boy’s father, the first husband, saying he was concerned for the child’s safety. The documents were then used in the father’s custody case.

“I was doing what I had to do,” Leon Walker told the Detroit Free Press. “We’re talking about putting a child in danger.”

On discovering that her emails had been read Clara went to the authorities.

The Oakland County prosecutor, Jessica Cooper, said Walker broke the law by hacking into his former wife’s account, describing him as a skilled “hacker” who used his wife’s email “in a contentious way” in a voice mail to the Free Press.

Walker’s lawyer disagrees.

“I’ve been a defence attorney for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Leon Weiss told the Detroit Free Press. “This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nefarious purpose. It’s to protect against identity fraud, to keep somebody from taking somebody’s intellectual property or trade secrets.

“I have to ask: Don’t the prosecutors have more important things to do with their time?”

Half of the divorce cases in the U.S. involve spousal snooping through emails, text messages or social networking sites, claim Walker’s lawyers.

While Walker claims the laptop was a family computer he used frequently, Clara says the computer was bought for her by Leon as a gift and was hers alone. Walker insists his then-wife’s password was kept in a notebook next to the computer, while Clara says her sign-in has always been secret.

Walker’s trial is due to start in February 2011.

The Walkers have been divorced for a month.

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