A FORMER escort girl sobbed as she described to a jury how she hacked a businessman to death with an axe after he threatened her and her daughter.

Jan Charlton told Leeds Crown Court how she remembers hitting boyfriend Daniel O'Brien with the weapon in the bedroom of their luxury home in Midgley, West Yorkshire, as the couple were taking part in a sex session.

She said she was amazed when her 40-year-old lover stood up after the first blow. She described how she then just kept on hitting him in a panic.

Charlton, aged 36, was in tears and dabbing her eyes with tissues throughout her description of how she agreed to have kinky sex with Mr O'Brien to calm him down and prevent an argument on May 23, last year.

She said the businessman began to threaten her three-year-old daughter, Amy, and chop off her own head if she tried to leave the room.

Amy was playing outside in the garden of the house at the time.

Charlton said she was a total panic when Mr O'Brien pointed out the axe in the room and she realised she could not leave the bedroom and escape with Amy.

She said she put handcuffs, a blindfold and a gag on him and he was knelt down with his back to her when she reached for the axe.

She said: "I grabbed hold of the axe. I just hit him.

Charlton added: "He sprung up and turned round and his arms were by his side.

"I just thought I hadn't hit him properly and he could have grabbed it off me.

"He fell down to the floor and I just hit him."

She agreed with Robert Smith QC, defending, that she "just kept on hitting him" and when he asked if she realised she had hit Mr O'Brien at least 20 times she replied: "I didn't know I had. I didn't know it had been that many times."

Charlton was asked by Mr Smith about the prosecution's suggestion that she killed Mr O'Brien because he had got back in touch with his ex-girlfriend, Lynn Golland.

She replied: "Definitely not. I could have not have cared at all. It made it easier if anything."

Blonde haired Charlton, who stood in the witness box wearing a dark suit and a white blouse, denies murder. She claims lawful self defence and provocation.