Posted on 03/30/2006 2:29:34 AM PST by MadIvan
A woman accused of murdering her husband of two months, said yesterday that she shot him accidentally as she danced provocatively for him with his shotgun to the music of Shania Twain.
Linda West, 49, was called upon to demonstrate in court how she had gyrated to the song Man! I Feel Like a Woman, using a broom handle to represent the gun.
She said she had decided to arouse her husband Gregory, 45, who was wearing only a dressing gown after getting out of the bath. It was a "sexual game" that had tragic consequences, she said.
Mr West was found dead in an armchair by police after his wife made a hysterical 999 call. He had a single shotgun wound to his chest.
Giving evidence in her defence at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, West said they had shared a "lovely evening" at their Southampton home. They had drunk wine and she had run a bath for her husband.
When he came out of the bathroom she decided to put on a show and began dancing to the music of the country singer, which was playing on a stereo. The song contains erotically-charged lyrics.
She said Mr West then disappeared into the bedroom of their flat and reappeared with his BSA500 shotgun and asked her to dance with it.
West re-enacted her moves using the broom handle, telling the jury: "I'm holding the barrels of the gun and I'm dancing holding the gun. I was entertaining my husband."
She said that at the end of the song she put the shotgun on to the floor beside her. With tears streaming down her face she said: "It just went off…it just went bang."
A weapons expert told the court that the safety catch, used to prevent the accidental firing of the gun, was faulty and it could have gone off without anyone touching the trigger. West told the court that she was unaware of the fault.
The prosecution claims the couple had argued after drinking and West had deliberately shot her husband, a marine engineer, in anger. Neighbours had reported hearing shouting coming from their flat.
West insisted that she had been cavorting to fulfil her husband's fantasy, when tragedy struck.
"It was a game, it was a game", she said. "It was just a sexual game."
Describing her hysterical reaction after the gun went off, West said: "I was trying to wake him up. I was slapping his face and trying to open his eyes, and he just wouldn't wake up."
Asked why she had not mentioned the sex game when interviewed by police, she said she had been confused.
The jury has heard that Mr West, a keen shooter, had been wearing only a blue dressing gown and no underwear at the time of his death.
In her 999 call West had said: "We were playing with a gun, it just went off. I don't believe it."
Armed police surrounded the flat before finally entering the property and arresting her.
Tests showed that West had consumed a quantity of alcohol that was more than twice the legal drink-driving limit.
She denies murdering her husband on May 9 last year. She also denies manslaughter.
The trial continues.
man and here i was all set to get a new shotgun and shania twain cd for my honeymoon i geuss thats out of the question now :-( I will however still bring my gun on the honeymoon :-)
Actually, I think I am buying it. I'm normally a big skeptic, but I think I believe it because she didn't immediately tell the police what happened. She told the 911 operator they were playing with a gun. If this was her 'cover' story, then I think she would have been spilling it out to the police when they showed up. If she really was in shocked disbelief at her husband being shot and dead, then her first thoughts probably would have been grief for her loss and not clearing her name.
"This is my rifle, this is my gun..."
Did it "just go off" a second or third time, too?
How embarassing
--Travis--
Happy, I suppose...
If I were prosecutor, I would place a blank shell in the gun and bounce it off the floor a few times. If it wont go off , guilty.
It would seem to me his wound would disprove her allegation-it's unlikely a gun on the floor could shoot a man in the chest, especially if he's sitting in a chair.
That don't impress me much.......
Hey, I'm just here for the pics...
It's a shame Maureen Dowd is not involved in this story in any way...
I wonder if the police investigators checked to see what's in the cd player.
That's British for "bathrobe".
I guess it wasn't his "Love gun..."
Yeah, I don't believe it either.
Can you explain that? ;-)
That's one flexible gun.
And never the Twain shall meet.
Ivan, my friend I always love your posts. Have a good day.
Shania needs some moth balls.
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