AXE killer Janet Charlton wept as her five-year verdict was delivered then mouthed "sorry" to her parents in the public gallery.

Charlton, 36, who denied murder but admitted killing former Rossendale businessman Danny O'Brien, was told by the trial judge: "You lost your self-control and you lashed out in a frenzy and he was killed."

Former escort girl Charlton, who admitted bludgeoning her lover to death with an axe, was 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 businessman Daniel 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.

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.

"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 Daniel 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."

As the foreman of the jury read out the verdict, following more than 19 hours of deliberation, Charlton showed little emotion staring at the floor and closing her eyes.

But as Robert Smith QC, defending, began his mitigation speech she began to dab away tears as she sat in the dock dressed head to toe in black with her blond hair tied into a pony tail.

When the judge passed sentence she began to cry and slumped forward in the dock with her head in her hands.

Gasps were heard from the packed public gallery which included Mr O'Brien's mother, Elizabeth, Charlton's ex-husband, Tony and Lynn Golland - the ex-girlfriend of the businessman who gave evidence in the trial.

A number of people shouted comments as she was led by a woman security guard from to the cells, sobbing uncontrollably.

One man shouted: "You should be laughing, not crying."