TO those that knew Daniel O'Brien, he was a popular member of the Townsendfold community in Rossendale where he is still fondly remembered.

But the respected businessman, who made his fortune when he sold his gas repair and fixture company, Care & Repair, had another -- far seedier, and far more demanding-- side to his nature.

It was a side that ultimately led to his gruesome end -- hacked to death by his lover. The weapon, still draped with a suspender belt and a pair of white stockings, was found embedded in his skull in the blood-spattered master bedroom at his luxury West Yorkshire home.

Mr O'Brien, 41, had a sexual appetite which saw him indulge in depraved fantasies with his girlfriends.

His former East Lancashire neighbours, still reeling from his brutal death on May 23 last year at the hands of his lover, Jan Charlton, were shocked by the revelations aired during her trial at Leeds Crown Court. But still they stood by the man they described as modest.

One said: "He would stop for a chat and ask us in for a drink. Although he apparently had money, he was not snooty in any way."

Even when his work commitments took him to West Yorkshire, he kept his home in Rossendale. At weekends he would come back and visit with his girlfriends, where his sexual fantasies would be acted out. Later the home was rented out.

Mr O'Brien was a regular at the nearby Whitchaff Inn, in Bury Road, where one drinker remembered how he brought his mother in for a Christmas dinner some years ago.

He said: "Danny used to come in here pretty regularly, sometimes alone and sometimes with his girlfriend. He seemed a nice, outgoing sort of guy who was popular with the other customers."

This public appearance, however, was a stark contrast to his private life.

He was attracted to a life of various sexual encounters, encouraging girlfriends to have sex with strangers in clubs, and public parks.

Former girlfriends described how he involved them in his warped ideas -- pushing their resolve to the extreme. The judge hearing the case called him a "flawed man" with an "extremely depraved" liking of sex. One girlfriend attended the court with a walking stick. She told how Mr O'Brien had caused her to suffer internal injuries and damage to her spine after he had forced himself on her. Despite her begging and sobbing, her ordeal continued with Mr O'Brien -- seemingly "in another world" -- watching pornographic videos. He even ignored the couple's code word "toast" which meant "no."

Another girlfriend, Lynne Golland, told how Mr O'Brien had introduced her to a "fantasy-based sex-life." During their four-year relationship the couple would seek out other couples for sex. They took adverts out in contact magazines and regularly held partner-swapping sessions at Mr O'Brien's Yorkshire mansion. He had a phone known as the "naughty phone", used for sex calls by people Mr O'Brien had given the number to in clubs and pubs.

And it was his obsession with sex which led Mr O'Brien to his killer.

In 1999 he signed up for the £50-a-year "gold" membership package with the Nottingham-based internet contact agency, UK Escorts Ltd.

The court heard Mr O'Brien listed his interests as meeting men, women, couples, transvestites and transsexuals.

In 2000 he met an escort calling herself Natasha and they embarked on a passionate relationship. That escort girl was Jan Charlton.

Mr O'Brien was said to have a "draw full" of sex aids in the master bedroom, and the couple owned more than 20 pornographic videos, which they would regularly watch. Friends said Charlton spoke about meeting her "soulmate" and they both immersed themselves in frenzied sexual encounters. On one occasion Mr O'Brien had sex with Charlton at a secret club in front of a live audience.

This demanding nature also manifested itself in the more domestic side to their relationship. A cleaner of Mr O'Brien's told how he insisted his shirts were hung in order of shade -- dark to light, in every colour -- and ordered the retrieval from the dustbin of a toothpaste tube which he thought had pennies worth of use left in it.

The cleaner recalled how Mr O'Brien would pick on Charlton for wearing low blouses in front of his mother. He also demanded she stay in and sever her links with her past and her friends.

The mother of Danny O'Brien called his killer girlfriend "a liar" and likened her to notorious Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

Elizabeth O'Brien said she met Charlton only about three times and did not like her on the first occasion.

She said her son had asked her what she thought of Charlton and she said: " "I didn't like her.

"I said, 'She looks like a murderer or something, Myra Hindley'.

"He just laughed and said, 'Is that what you think of her?' and I said 'Yes'."