Someone to confide in

Because both had suffered from depression in the past, psychiatrists said Horton felt he could confide in Charlotte like no other person he knew.

Horton had been dogged by depression and low self-esteem since the age of 11.

He had gone to primary school in Darwen but when he failed the exams for grammar school, he was sent to Darwen Vale. All but four of his friends went to other schools.

Within 10 minutes of arriving at Vale on his first day, he had been beaten up. He was to be continually taunted and bullied throughout his five years at school, and soon felt like a lonely outcast, partly because of his height.

He towered over his peers - who included just three people he regarded as friends - as he grew to 6ft 8ins tall.

By the fifth year of high school, he was regularly truanting and only achieved poor GCSE grades. Faked letters written by Horton stopped his parents finding out about his failure to attend classes. His parents, Richard and Eileen, ordered him to retake his GCSEs at college in Blackburn, but he only survived there for five months before quitting, again through bullying.

It was only in 1994, after being on the dole for two years - something else which contributed to his low self esteem - that Horton finally got a job, working as a care worker for Lancashire County Council, whose Social Services department was to pass over in later years to Blackburn with Darwen Council.

He remained at home until he was 29, and during that time he only occasionally socialised with a small group of friends, going to football and cricket matches. He confessed while on remand that he preferred his own company, listening to music and reading.

In 1999, he met Charlotte through work. Slowly they became friends and after socialising outside work early in 2001, she asked him to move into the house she had bought in Walmsley Street.

Here he copied Charlotte by socialising more, losing weight and smoking. But at the same time, he slowly became more depressed and in May last year tried to kill himself by jumping in front of a train. Charlotte saved him.

He was seen several times by doctors who prescribed various anti-depressant tablets.

Before Charlotte left for London, Horton told psychiatrists their relationship had become strained. Charlotte had told people that Horton 'did my head in'. But Horton still agreed to help her move to London and visited her regularly after she started at the Barley Mow pub, where she died.

To the regulars in the Barley Mow, he was known as Jeff. No one is sure why Charlotte and Horton started the Jeff ruse, although in court the prosecution was told that one of Horton's friends who lived in London was called Jeff and Charlotte had used his postal address when applying for jobs.

It wasn't the only lie Horton told the regulars at the pub. Landlady Mary Gordon said: "He said he had been a family friend for years. He said he remembered when she was born."

In fact, the only connection between Horton and the Flanagan family was that Charlotte's mother, Dorothy, knew him through working at a Darwen doctor's surgery.

Other regulars were told he worked in London.

Barley Mow landlord John Gordon described Horton as 'a loner'.

"He was a quiet guy who kept himself to himself," he said. Others, including Tony Moore, who told the court Charlotte saw him as her 'adoptive dad' while in London, spoke of how Charlotte told them she was fed up of Horton regularly visiting her.

He had gone to London at Christmas to say 'farewell' to Charlotte. He had planned to kill himself shortly afterwards. He still insists he has no recollection of killing Charlotte.

He also insisted that he had no sexual feelings towards Charlotte.

But, said psychiatrist Paul Cantrall, this could have been a defence mechanism set up to prevent him from being rejected by her.

"That would have been too much for him to cope with," he said.

Life, said Mr Cantrall, for 'moderate depressives' like Horton 'is all a burden.'

"They see everything through a grey drizzle. Nothing excites them. Even their favourite food tastes bland," he said.

"They regularly have suicidal thoughts and feel their life is over."

Horton was more likely than the average person to 'depressive episodes' because his father and aunt both suffered depression. Effectively, he inherited it.

"However, a lot of it is to do with his early experiences," said Mr Cantrall. "His life, the bullying, the friendlessness ... they all contributed to a chronic low mood.

"In Charlotte, he felt he had found someone to confide in."