A FORMER escort girl who axed her wealthy businessman lover to death has told of her delight after her jail term was reduced from five years to three-and-a-half.

Janet Charlton killed Harwood tycoon Daniel O'Brien in the bedroom of the home they shared in Midgley, West Yorkshire.

She was cleared of his murder at Leeds Crown Court last year but was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail.

The 37-year-old was said to be "naturally very pleased" after her sentence was cut by Appeal Court judges in London and looking forward to being reunited with her four-year-old daughter.

Speaking after the case her solicitor, Carl Kingsley, said: "The imposition of a three-and-a-half year sentence will have a significant impact on the time which Ms Charlton will have to serve in prison.

"Hopefully this will assist in the reuniting of Ms Charlton with her daughter."

Charlton hit Harwood tycoon Daniel O'Brien, aged 41, over the head and upper body 20 times during a kinky sex session in the master bedroom of his home.

Mr O'Brien was hacked to death while kneeling on the floor, blindfolded and gagged and with his hands manacled by handcuffs.

Her jail term was reduced after the Appeal Court judges were told that Mr O'Brien was a "control freak" who carried the axe to the bedroom. The court was told that he died after threatening to kill Charlton and abuse and murder her four-year-old daughter, Amy.

The judge said Charlton, who was not in court to hear the judge's ruling, had been "a happy go lucky" woman before embarking on her destructive relationship with Mr O'Brien. She had shown no tendency to violence and was a good mother.

Mr Justice Elias, sitting with Mr Justice Jackson, accepted the facts of the case were verging on the unique and, allowing the appeal, accepted that the original five year sentence had been "manifestly excessive".

He said Charlton's relationship with Mr O'Brien was characterised by sexual practices "which well merit the description depraved."

John Elvidge, for Charlton, had told the court that what had begun as a consensual enjoyment of bizarre sexual practises had descended further and further into "extreme sexual abuse" as the relationship continued.

Mr Justice Elias said that the taking of a human life always had to be treated seriously and Charlton had been rightly jailed.

However, there were precedents for the court taking a merciful view of domestic killings where there was substantial provocation.

Allowing the appeal, and reducing Charlton's sentence to three and a half years the judge concluded: "We have come to the conclusion that the five year sentence was, in all the circumstances, excessive."

Charlton's solicitor Mr Kingsley said the appeal court decision was "a compassionate one." He added: "It reflected the facts found by the jury, significantly that it was the deceased who had brought the axe into the bedroom and had threatened to kill both Ms Charlton and her daughter."