The activities of Apple's legal team hit a new low after threatening an 11 year old girl after one of its iPods exploded.

Not worried about being sued themselves, Apple UK agreed to refund the purchase price to the girl's father in exchange for a confidentiality agreement that threatened a lawsuit if the family ever disclosed the settlement terms or even its existence.

Ken Stanborough, the girl's father, who told the story to The Times of London. Stanborough said that he dropped his daughter Ellie's iPod Touch and it began making a hissing sound. "I could feel it getting hotter in my hand," he said, "and I thought I could see vapour." Mr. Stanborough threw the iPod out of his back door, where "within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10 feet in the air."

In the States the victim of the exploding device would seek hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) from Apple for the trauma associated with such an ordeal. Stanborough instead just asked for a refund. Apple not only treated him badly but when he finally got a local Apple UK executive who offered him the refund he was requesting, and sent him an agreement to sign. That agreement included a gagging order.

The gagging order actually meant that any accidental mention of the incident could land him and his family in court. He didnt see why he should put a life sentence on himself, or his daughter and Ellie's mum, not to say anything to anyone.

“If we inadvertently did say anything, no matter what, they would take litigation against us. I thought that was absolutely appalling. We didn't ask for compensation, we just asked for our money back," he said.