Man tortures wife, chains her 'like a dog' over bad soup

A husband chained his wife by the neck 'like a dog' and starved her of food and water - because he didn't like her soup.

The 40-year-old man, named only as Alexander, wanted to 'teach his wife 'a lesson', Ukraine news site Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

His partner Angela was then forced to live for three days with no access to food, water or toilet.

Alexander wrapped the chain around his wife's neck and tethered the other end of furniture in a room in their house at the village of Novokamenka in Ukraine, the Mykolaiv appeal court heard.

The incident happened in December 2017 after the couple had a quarrel at home, according to the report.

Alexander had a plate of borscht for lunch - a sour soup using beetroots as main ingredient - and shouted 'how disgusting' to his wife.

He beat her with a rolling pin when she complained about his torture, a court was told.

Her relatives came to find her after three days, forcing their way into the house to find her pale and shaking.

Police and an ambulance responded to a call to their house but Alexander had gone on the run.

Hours later, they caught him hiding in a garage at about 20 kilometres from the village, it is reported.

Angela said:

He screamed and shouted at me for bad quality of my cooking.

But she believed the soup was just an excuse to the abuse as she said she had stopped giving money to her husband. Alex was charged to court for the offence.