World affairs

There are only a few ways of coming out of a relationship with some respect. None of which include sleeping with your partner's butch dog.

That's apparently what happened when Nicholas Saunders stayed with his ex- wife Kelly Thacker last year.

Sure isn't it a logical step - you have a fight with your girlfriend, so you stay with your ex-wife and sleep with her bull mastiff bitch? The 46-year-old from Bell Lane, Lechlade, Gloucestershire denies the charge and says he did not get it on doggy style.

Kelly claims to have found Nicholas in bed with the poor dog on January 15 last year after he had had a fight with his then girlfriend.

The pair had managed to remain friendly despite the marriage break up. Presumably they never thought a bull mastiff would come between them.

According to the prosecution, Nicholas was feeling quite amorous that night and after Kelly made it clear she was interested he turned to the bull mastiff bitch, Sasha.

Poor Sasha didn't see it coming at all.

While Nicholas denies the charge there was the DNA of a dog found on his penis.