Nigerian kills, burns British husband in Gambia

BANJUL, Aug 1 (Reuters) A 26-year-old Nigerian woman has confessed to killing her 76-year-old British husband and burning his body, police in the tiny West African state of Gambia said today.

Nigerian national Kate Atori admitted beating her husband of several years, William West, round the head with a wooden pestle normally used to grind corn and burning his body, police spokesman Aziz Bojang told Reuters in Gambia's capital Banjul.

''Kate Atori put the remains of her late husband's body in a bag and disposed of it,'' Bojang said.

Police said earlier Atori led them to the place where she had disposed of West's remains, and she was subsequently charged with murder.

Nigerian-born Atori met West several years ago in a restaurant in Gambia's main tourist area near Banjul and the two later married, Bojang said.

Bojang said British forensic experts were assisting Gambian police investigating the crime, which has caused uproar in the country, visited by some 60,000 British tourists each year.

European men often find younger women partners in countries across Africa, where a relationship with a rich foreigner can be seen as a route out of poverty. But Gambia is better known as a place where European women frequently find male partners.

REUTERS VJ BST0159