Twain death woman's jail term cut

West had been married for nine weeks when she shot her husband

A woman who shot her husband dead while dancing with shotgun to a Shania Twain song has had her prison term cut.

Linda West, 49, was jailed at Winchester Crown Court last June for the murder of her husband Gregory.

She had claimed she was dancing to the song Man! I Feel Like A Woman when the gun went off accidentally at their Southampton flat in May 2005.

West lost a bid at the Court of Appeal to challenge her conviction but had her minimum term cut from 16 to 13 years.

'Take a bow'

Lord Justice May, Mr Justice Butterfield and Mr Justice King said there was no lurking doubt in their minds that would make the conviction unsafe.

But she had her minimum jail term - the least she must serve before she can be considered for parole - cut by the three judges in London.

Giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court during the trial, West said she and her husband of only nine weeks were drunk when he decided she should dance to the song with the shotgun.

She said she banged it on the floor at the abrupt end of the song so as to "take a bow" and the gun, which an expert found to have a faulty safety catch, went off.

The blast hit her 45-year-old husband, a marine engineer, in the heart, killing him instantly as he sat in a chair.

The prosecution said she had loaded her husband's double-barrelled gun and shot him at close range because of a heated row that evening.