A FORMER escort girl who hacked her businessman boyfriend to death with an axe said her lover wanted to control her and would "go ballistic" if she fell short of his standards.

Janet Charlton, aged 36, told a jury at Leeds Crown Court about a series of incidents in which Daniel O'Brien became angry.

On one occasion he threw a plate of food at her. On others he had sex with her while she slept and told her to cut ties with her old friends.

Charlton broke down in tears as she recalled being forced by Mr O'Brien to have sex with 10 men at a club in Manchester.

Asked by her barrister, Robert Smith, QC, how she felt, the Oldham-born mother-of-one openly wept and clutched at a tissue.

She said: "It was awful. I came out feeling like a piece of meat.

"I was cross with myself in the first place, I couldn't believe I was so stupid and I went: 'I was never going again', and I never did."

Earlier, Charlton had described how Mr O'Brien had raised the subject of them going to sex clubs.

She said: "I just wanted to make him happy. I had never been before and I said I would go but I kept putting it off. It was about a month before we went."

Charlton is charged with murdering 41-year-old Mr O'Brien at their luxury home in Midgley, West Yorkshire, on May 23 last year.

The former Harwood businessman was found with an axe embedded in his head in his bedroom. He was naked, face down and had been hit at least 20 times.

In the witness box, Charlton was asked by Mr Smith: "Are you able to say to the court why you killed Danny O'Brien?"

Charlton replied: "I had no choice. There was no way that my daughter was going to be harmed in any way and there's no way I was either. I hadn't got a choice."

Charlton admits killing her lover but denies murder. She says she was acting in self defence after Mr O'Brien threatened to sexually assault and kill her four-year-old daughter, Amy, as well as herself. She also claims provocation.

Mr Smith asked her to confirm she had been to see a doctor on April 4, 2001 -- about seven weeks before Mr O'Brien's death.

Charlton discussed being depressed. The doctor recorded she "feels very low about herself".

Four months earlier, on New Year's Eve, Mr O'Brien allegedly threw a plate of bread and meat at Charlton. The businessman then hit her with his fist, the court heard.

She also woke up on several occasions to find Mr O'Brien having sex with her. Their relationship, she said, had hit a rocky patch and made her "afraid to get up in the mornings".

Charlton also told how she became involved in escort work. She saw an advert in a women's magazine at the end of 1999 and decided to send off for some information.

Charlton said she liked socialising and that the work would allow her to earn extra money and spend time with her daughter, Amy.

She did not realise at first the work might involve having sex with a client, but then she said she would have the "ultimate choice" whether to or not. The first man she met was a client, referred to in court as Mr B.

Charlton said Mr B did not immediately want sex, but said he would tell her his "life story".

She went on to say she did not sleep with Mr B every time she met him and said she cared for him and became a friend.

She told the jury she met another man through the agency, referred to in court as Mr A, and eventually had sex with him.

Asked by Mr Smith if she would have had sex if she had not liked him, she replied: "No, definitely not. I had to feel that the person was a nice person." Charlton told the court she was first contacted by Mr O'Brien after she had asked for her details to be taken off the escorts website. She said he told her he had down-loaded her information, printed it off and kept it.

Charlton spoke to him a number of times over the phone before agreeing to meet him at his house.

She said he had originally called her because he was looking for someone to take to the Hedonism resort in Jamaica, but she told him she could not go.

Asked about her first impressions of him, she said: "He was very outgoing, very friendly. We sort of hit it off."

Charlton said she first went to his house in September, 2000. She said: "I really, really liked him. I was looking forward to seeing him again."

Charlton said she stayed the night but it was not until their next meeting that they had sex. The sex was normal and it was not until later she realised Mr O'Brien was involved in more extreme practices.

She said he also told her about his relationship with another former girlfriend, Lynn Golland.

Charlton said: "He said they'd had a very open relationship. They'd been involved on various occasions in group sex. I realised that he was bisexual."

Asked by Mr Smith about whether she was broadminded at that stage, she replied: "I suppose I was fairly broadminded. I also did not know the extent of what had gone on."

Charlton was also asked about the so-called purple book in which the couple began to record their feelings about each other.

Charlton told the court: "I have never been out with anyone like him before. I have never been with anybody who wanted to be with me so much. It was a fantastic feeling. He was besotted. I suppose in a way that made me feel special."

But she told the court she also became aware of Mr O'Brien's meticulous nature which meant keeping his house spotless and extremely ordered.

(Proceeding)