Tiny lawyer sues witness

A dwarf prosecutor in Germany is suing a male witness who broke down laughing at her while on the stand.

Silke Schoenfleisch-Backofen, 39, is 1.11m tall but she has put many Frankfurt criminals behind bars.

So when witness Wadim Golanev, 25, cracked up in hysterics at the "dwarf lady" during a theft case, she was left fuming.

London's Daily Mail reported that Golanev was unable to answer her questions because he was laughing so much.

He reportedly pointed at her and began to sing the song, Hi Ho, Hi Ho! from the Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

But nobody else got the joke, the paper reported.

Before he left the witness stand, he was given a hastily hand-written summons accusing him of "obscene insults" and he was ordered to appear before a judge next month.

Schoenfleisch-Backofen has earned herself the nickname Power Frau (mighty woman).

The Daily Mail reported that she became a lawyer after she was unable to make it into medical school because of her height. So she set about suing the German health ministry for denying her entry.

"What's big for me is not the physical measurements of the body, but what's big inside you," she reportedly said.

She has worked as a prosecutor in the Frankfurt State Court for eight years. She specialises in business law but has prosecuted the occasional murder case.

One of her biggest successes was her successful prosecution of the best friend of German textile heir Andreas Grimm, 25, who was murdered in 2006.

She won the case despite that fact that his body has never been found.