Still from The Wizard of Oz (1939). Image courtesy of MGM
A man has pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife by locking her in their garden shed after she sang “ding dong the witch is dead” from the Wizard of Oz after hearing of the death of his mother.
Truro magistrates’ court heard how the Andrew Salmon, 42, packed up his wife’s belongings and refused to let her into their Cornwall home after the incident.
His wife then decided to head into their shed for shelter and wait for him to calm down, but Salmon then locked her in there, according to the local West Briton newspaper.
Mrs Salmon managed to escape the shed through a window and got back into the family home, but Salmon grabbed her by the ankles and tried to drag her outside. She managed to break free and run upstairs, where the argument continued and after she threw some of his clothes out of the window, he pinned her down on the bed in a choke hold.
Mrs Salmon again managed to break free and called the police, who broke up the fray.
Explaining his wife’s relationship with his family, Salmon said:
“She never really got on with my mum or any of my relatives and when my mum died she was horrible and offered me no support – she was extremely unsympathetic”
Salmon will be sentenced next month.
