A FORMER escort girl who hacked her wealthy East Lancashire lover to death with an axe was "a very good actress" who tried to cover up her "planning, clean-up and lies'' after the killing, a court heard.

Jan Charlton, 36, killed businessman Danny O'Brien after being told their relationship - and the luxury lifestyle she had grown accustomed to - was to end, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told.

Mr O'Brien lived in Holme Terrace, Townsendfold, Rawtenstall, until three years ago.

In his closing speech for the prosecution, Paul Worsley QC said: "She wanted the house, the lifestyle, the sexual activity and all that came, and she was not going to give it up."

Mr O'Brien, 40, was found with an axe embedded in his head at the home they shared in Midgley, West Yorkshire, on May 23 last year. He was blindfolded and gagged, and had been struck at least 20 times.

Charlton, who admits killing Mr O'Brien but denies murder, claims lawful self-defence and provocation after he allegedly threatened to kill both her and her three-year-old daughter Amy.

Mr Worsley said Charlton was not, as she earlier told the court, intending to leave Mr O'Brien, but "desperately trying to stay".

(Proceeding.)