There is a proven way you can catch a cheating lover by keeping your partner’s dirty mails or – even better - chat logs, at least in the state of Belgium.

Erotic talk with a virtual partner in chatrooms on the web can constitute proof of "grossly insulting behaviour" and can be used as evidence in a divorce case, Belgium's top judges have ruled.

Belgian legal paper Juristenkrant cites a ruling by the Brussels Appeals Court, which recently accepted printouts of a erotic chat as evidence in an adultery trial. Although the printouts were inadequate to prove a partner had cheated on his or her spouse, judges found that they could constitute grounds for divorce, because the behavior was clearly 'unworthy'. Divorce in Belgium is acknowledged for one of three reasons: by mutual consent, through adultery or cruelty, or by separation of five years or more.

So much for privacy laws, legal experts grumbled this week, but men and women that cheat will find no mercy in court, judges in Belgium have said. ®

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