FORMER escort girl Janet Charlton, who admitted bludgeoning her lover to death with an axe, was today cleared of murder.

She was jailed for five years at Leeds Crown Court after the jury found her guilty of manslaughter on the fourth day of deliberations.

The panel of seven men and three women - the other two had previously been discharged - decided she killed wealthy former Harwood businessman Danny O'Brien after being provoked through months of depraved sexual demands.

Charlton had denied murder and manslaughter, claiming she killed Mr O'Brien in self-defence after he threatened to kill her and abuse and kill her three-year-old daughter Amy.

The jury rejected this.

Charlton, 36, wept as the verdict was delivered. She mouthed the word "sorry" to the public gallery as she was led away from the courtroom.

Mr O'Brien, 41, was found with the axe embedded in his head, lying naked, gagged, blindfolded and handcuffed at the house he shared with Charlton in Midgley, Wakefield, on May 23 last year.

He had been hit more than 20 times.

The prosecution alleged that Charlton killed Mr O'Brien in "revenge" because he intended to end their relationship and return to a former girlfriend.

Sentencing Charlton, trial judge, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Norman Jones QC, said she had committed a "grave offence" which left him with no choice but to give her a custodial sentence.

The judge told Charlton: "I take into account that you did not take the axe upstairs and only because he did so that you are here today.

"Nevertheless to take a man's life even in these circumstances is a grave offence and can only attract a sentence of a significant number of years."

Judge Jones told her: "It is still a grave offence.

"It means at the time you lost your self-control.

"You were imbued with the desire to kill or cause very serious bodily injury to Danny O'Brien."

Judge Jones told Charlton that O'Brien was a "flawed man".

He said: "He was a flawed man - having sexual proclivities described by Professor Eastman as extremely depraved.

"I am satisfied that he introduced you to some of these practices although to keep him happy you were quite happy to go along with them.

"Your own attitude to sex was relaxed if not promiscuous and you were more ready to indulge in these practices than others may have been."