A husband in China has reportedly caught his wife of 20 years cheating on him with his friend after accidentally left his dashcam at home and switched on.

The device caught the woman, a secretary for a local discipline watchdog, having a rendezvous with the man, who was the mayor of his town, the husband accused.

He told reporters he was left devastated after seeing the footage out of expectation. He said he had left the camera home after thinking it was broken, reports the dailymail.co.uk.

The footage was released this week by the husband, known as Yang, to Shang You News, which is affiliated to state-run Chongqing Daily News Group.

Yang, who is from the city of Mudanjiang in north-eastern China, claimed that the video was filmed in August, 2016.

He added that he and his wife, known by a pseudonym Cui Hua, divorced in 2018 as a result of her alleged adulterous behaviour.

The edited clip, about a minute long and shot in the doorway, shows a man coming into a woman’s home. The two soon start to hug and kiss.

At one point, the man unzips the woman’s dress before carrying on cuddling her and seemingly kissing her breasts.

The conversation was blurry.

The woman can be heard saying ‘what are you doing’ when the man shows up; and the man can be heard saying ‘I miss you’ when the two caress.

Yang said the scene was shot by his dashcam. He said he had brought the device home after thinking it was broken. He left it at home without realising that it was switched on and still working, the man claimed. 

He told reporters that he had been good friends with his wife’s suspected lover, known as Liu.

Liu, who was the mayor of the Wenchun Town in the city, often visited Yang’s home and got to know his wife.

Cui Hua was later appointed as the sectary for the local Discipline Inspection Commission and became a co-worker with Liu.

Yang added that he suspected his wife had maintained a long-term affair with Liu, but only managed to find evidence when he came across the surprise footage.

He claimed to have reported the couple’s alleged affair to the local authority several times using the footage, but had not received any reply.

He sent the footage to Shang You in hope of gaining more attention for the matter. 

Cui Hua firmly denied her ex-husband’s allegations yesterday, claiming she and Liu were ‘ordinary colleagues’.

She claimed that she and Liu were not having a rendezvous, but an ‘accident’. She explained to Shang You that Liu was drunk in the video, therefore they had ‘intimate behaviour’ and it was a ‘one-off’ event.

The woman said her ex-husband’s claims were defamatory, adding that the video was shot by a secret monitor, not a dashcam.

A district government in Mudanjiang told the press that Liu had retired from his mayor position without giving further comment on the footage.