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Woman Who Hacked Lover to Death Has Jail Time Cut
Mon Feb 10,10:33 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman who hacked her boyfriend to death with an axe while he was naked, bound and gagged for a sex game, had her jail term reduced after a court ruled the original sentence was excessive.

Former escort girl Jan Charlton, 37, rained 20 axe blows on the head of millionaire lover Danny O'Brien while he knelt on the floor blindfolded with his hands manacled by handcuffs at his mansion in Midgley, West Yorkshire.

She was jailed for five years last May for manslaughter after being cleared of murder.

But on Friday this sentence was reduced to 3-1/2 years after London's Appeal Court was told O'Brien, 40, had carried the axe himself to the bedroom where he was killed, and had threatened to kill Charlton and murder her four-year-old daughter.

Judge Justice Elias said the pair's relationship had involved bizarre sexual practices which "well merited the description 'depraved.'"

He said Charlton had been "a happy go lucky" woman before embarking on her destructive relationship with O'Brien. She had shown no tendency toward violence and was a good mother.

The court ruled the facts of the case were verging on the unique and accepted that the original five-year sentence had been "manifestly excessive."

Elias said that in certain cases of domestic manslaughter by significant provocation a jail term was required, but a lower sentence could be appropriate.