What's up Doc?
Whatcha doing?
What's up Doc?
You're going to hurt someone
With that old shotgun
What's up Doc?
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.
He was shot in the chest while sitting in a chair. The gun was laying on the floor.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that it is impossible for a long gun laying on the floor can shoot up at an angle of more than 0 degrees and hit a target that is at least 30 inches off the floor.
They were living in a flat in Southampton. Very unlikely that they were rich.
Try again.
Ivan
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.
You forgot "That Don't Impress Me Much"
Maybe he shot first.
huh? Not when I sing it.
BAN IT!
Please - don't give anyone ideas!
It has been a few years for me, but I might want to get back into it again.
I think in this case the actual Shania song might have been "Whose Bed have your Boots been under"
LOL:)
Any mention of Maureen Dowd triggers gratuitious postings of Catherine Zeta Jones pics... It's complicated, all right?
It is amusing though that guns are extremely regulated across the pond. Amusing because our gun rights precipitate from English common law.
We are currently fighting further restrictions on our own gun laws and we have good 'ammo' based on what has happened to England and Australia after their Draconian gun laws took effect. Excellent propaganda for our American NRA, who has shown pictures of massive destruction of firearms (mostly from Australia after that amusement park shooting changed their gun rights)
good luck
That's a real cute excuse.
Southampton, England, has the unpleasant designation of being the Yob Capital of Britain.
Hardly upper class. It's a dirty old port town.
Ivan
There is always hope.
Hey, Who is going to start the 'Crime by Shania Twain' ping list?
If your idea of foreplay includes a shotgun and a Shania Twain song... at the same time... you just might be redneck.
What's up Doc?
Whatcha doing?
What's up Doc?
You're going to hurt someone
With that old shotgun
What's up Doc?
Outstanding post. Just checking in for pictures of Shania. Thanks. :)
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