Obese man jailed for sitting on wife who later died

An overweight man who crushed his wife by sitting on her during an argument so severely that she later died has received a five-year jail sentence from a court in the central German city of Hildesheim.

The court found the 50-year-old bus driver, who weighed 128kg at the time of the incident, guilty of causing injury resulting in the death of his 46-year-old wife, who weighed 63kg.

In evidence the man acknowledged arguing with his wife but claimed he had fallen on her by mistake.

Expert evidence was heard that he must have sat on her for at least two minutes.

The victim suffered 18 broken ribs and died in hospital four weeks after the argument, which took place in Hildesheim in April 2006.

"It was a painful death dragged out over weeks," Judge Ulrich Pohl said, adding that the defendant had done nothing to assist his wife.