AN INSURANCE salesman is on trial for the alleged negligent homicide of his lover during a sex romp involving a cucumber.
Oliver Dietmann, 46, could be jailed for five years if convicted of the bedroom death of his lover Rica Varna, also 46, due to the phallic-shaped veg.
The court where he is on trial in Mannheim, Germany, heard the sordid details of the greengrocery lovemaking episode, which also featured a bunch of carrots and some courgettes.
Dietmann told the court: "We often used vegetables because we had no proper dildos."
Dietmann said he had met Rica in 2004, but their relationship turned sexual five years later.
On July 19 in 2014 he invited her around to his home where the cucumber was used "to pleasure her", the court heard.
He admitted they had drunk four bottles of wine between them and several glasses of schnapps.
A post mortem later showed that she was nearly four times over the legal limit to drive a car.
After the cucumber had served its purpose he said: "I put it it in her mouth. But suddenly I saw there was smoke coming from the kitchen.
"I forgot that I had put a piece of meat on the stove for my dog.
"I ran to the kitchen, fed my dog and then went on to the balcony to smoke a cigarette."
He said when he returned to the bedroom, Rica was unconscious.
Dietmann added: "I tried to get the cucumber pieces out of her mouth but they were so mushy I couldn't get any purchase at all."
Medical experts later said that the cucumber got wedged in her throat, cut off her air supply and plunged her into a coma.
Prosecutor Reinhard Hoffmann said: "The defendant must have known that he should not have left her for so long on her own."