By FRED ATTEWILL

Last updated at 15:45 04 May 2007

A Sudanese man who married a goat was in mourning today after his wife died when she swallowed a plastic bag.

Charles Tombe shot to fame last year when he tied the knot with Rose.

A court ordered him to marry the beast "to save her honour" after he was caught making amorous advances toward the mother-of-one in the middle of the night.

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Mr Tombe and Rose are believed to have lived happily ever after until her life was cruelly cut short.

The story, which became one of the world's best read tales, began in Juba, southern Sudan, in February last year when the BBC reported that the then owner of the goat, Mr Alifi, was awoken in the night by a strange noise.

Walking out of his traditional hut, he was confronted by the sight of Mr Tombe and Rose in a passionate embrace.

Today the Times reported that Mr Alifi said: 'When I asked him "What are you doing there?" he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."

When Mr Tombe was brought before a council of elders he claimed he was drunk when Rose caught his eye.

He was ordered to pay Mr Alifi a "dowry" of 15,000 Sudanese dinars - about £25 - since he was considered to have used the goat "as his wife."

In the same way a man is expected to marry a woman if he has sex with her in southern Sudan, Mr Tombe was deemed to have married Rose.

However, despite a happy marriage money was tight and Rose died after swallowing a plastic bag as she scavenged for food on the streets of Juba.

She is said to have left a male kid - not a boy. It is not yet known whether she will be cremated or used in a local speciality of goat curry.

Tom Rhodes, a Briton who helped to found the Juba Post which first broke the story, said townsfolk still congratulate him.

“It shows the Sudanese have a sense of humour,” the Times reported he said.