Five years for axe killer

Former escort girl Janet Charlton, who admitted bludgeoning her lover to death with an axe during a bondage session, was today found not guilty of murder.

But she was jailed for five years after being found guilty of manslaughter. A jury decided she killed wealthy businessman Danny O'Brien after being provoked through months of depraved sexual demands.

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 near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on 23 May last year. He had been hit more than 20 times.

Charlton, 36, had denied murder and manslaughter, claiming she killed him in self-defence after he threatened to abuse her daughter Amy, who was then aged three, and kill them both with the axe. The Leeds Crown Court jury rejected this claim.

When the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Norman Jones QC, passed sentence, Charlton began to cry and slumped forward in the dock, her head in her hands. Gasps were heard from the packed public gallery, where Mr O'Brien's mother Elizabeth sat, along with Charlton's ex-husband Tony, and Lynn Golland - Mr O'Brien's ex-girlfriend who gave evidence in the trial.

As Charlton was led from the court in tears, she mouthed: "Sorry," to her parents. But one man shouted out: "You should be laughing, not crying."

The court heard that Charlton had been subjected to months of abuse from her lover. He had persuaded her to indulge in bizarre sex acts, including going to secluded cars parks to have sex with men she didn't know, and having sex with 10 men in turn at a sauna club. In court Charlton claimed she finally snapped when her partner threatened her and her daughter.

As he knelt down wearing bondage gear, Charlton smashed his skull in with the axe. She then claimed she forgot what she had done, and took her daughter out for a walk.

Only six months later, she claimed in court, did she remember what had happened and confessed.

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

Judge Jones told Charlton: "I take into account that you did not take the axe upstairs and it is only because he [Mr O'Brien] 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.

"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. By the jury's verdict this was not self-defence. But you lost your self-control and you lashed out in a frenzy and he was killed."

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

He said: "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." In his summing-up Judge Jones had told the jurors that they had three choices of verdicts.

He said they could find Charlton guilty of murder, convict her of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation or acquit her completely if they believed she was acting in lawful self-defence.

And he urged them not to condemn Charlton for the bizarre sex life she had enjoyed with Mr O'Brien. Instead, he urged jurors to decide what prompted her to strike the fatal blows.

He said: "We are not here to judge Janet Charlton's morality. Nor are we here to judge the moral code of Daniel O'Brien. But his demands on women may be important when we consider how they may have affected Janet Charlton."

Judge Jones told Charlton he recognised she had no history of violence and no previous convictions. The judge added: "Others have described you as a somewhat happy-go-lucky woman who's never shown before any tendency towards violence." He said she also had been described as a "good mother".

He described how Mr O'Brien controlled Charlton's life, saying he could be described as a "control freak".

'Under the spell of a control freak'