Man kills wife's pet ram in bitter divorce battle

A man who killed his wife's pet ram has found himself in the divorce courts.  The marriage had already gone sour, but the killing by the husband was apparently the last straw for the wife.  The elderly couple (70 and 68 years old) are enormously wealthy and have houses in London, Austria and the south of France.  

The wife, who is claiming £390,000 in annual maintenance (including £70,000 for holidays) is hoping to have the full divorce case heard in England, where wives are perceived to receive more generous settlements.  The husband, meanwhile, is arguing that he is not domiciled here, and it is for a Judge to decide where the case will be heard.

It seems that the unfortunate ram lived in the south of France until his death - the couple had bought a house there after the wife said how much she disliked the cold and damp of the UK in the winter.

A Judge will now decide if the full divorce proceedings should go ahead in the UK.  In the meantime he has awarded the wife a pared-down sum of £170,000 a year to live on.

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