A British council officer who killed his fiancee during a row over Alanis Morissette's song Ironic has walked free from court after a jury cleared him of any blame.
In the hours leading up to the argument Kevin Gibbens and Kim Grant had a pub meal and drinks with friends before returning together to his home in Horley, Surrey.
Once inside he began playing Ironic on his CD player. Tragically, once it was over they started rowing about part of the third verse - "it's meeting a man of my dreams/and then meeting the beautiful wife/and isn't it ironic ... don't you think?"
London's Blackfriars Crown Court was told he was unwilling to continue with the dispute, Gibbens decided to go to bed and headed for the stairs.
"I got almost to the top ... when I turned round and saw Kim running up towards me," he said.
Thinking she was going to hit him, he tried to, "deflect" her with his foot, a move that knocked him against a wall and sent her hurtling back down the stairs.
As she bled from a cut above her eye, she then tried to hit him with a cobra-shaped doorstop, ripped the telephone wires out after he pretended to dial 999, and hit him on the elbow with a wooden elephant. Deciding he had no choice but to "put a locked door between us" he wrapped his arm around her neck and walked her towards the entrance.
But when she grabbed hold of some water pipes, "I put two hands around her neck. It was the biggest mistake of my life. I will never forgive myself. But I didn't intend to kill her. Absolutely not ... I couldn't hurt Kim," he told the court.
After being let go, the bloodied and bruised 41-year-old managed to stagger to a neighbours for help. Hours later, back in her own home, she suffered a massive stroke and was rushed to hospital.
Gibbens argued he used only reasonable force to defend himself and get his wife-to-be out of his house.
PA