A HEROIN addict who murdered a man after suffering flashbacks to childhood sex abuse was yesterday jailed for life at Preston Crown Court.

Danielle Johnson, 27, of St John's Avenue in Pilling, earlier this week pleaded guilty to strangling 55-year-old George John Adamson at his home on Delacey Street, in Preston, last December.

She claimed the murder occurred after Mr Adamson -- a former dock worker who had recently split from his wife -- tried to tie her up for a sex session.

After hearing her plea, Judge Peter Openshaw, called for a trial of issue -- a rare procedure which allows the court to hear evidence without a jury present in order to decide if it should be used in a case.

Johnson -- who had a heroin problem and weighed eight stone at the time of the killing -- had met her victim for the first time two days before the killing at a pub in the city.

They drank all day before going home to his house to have sex and had been drinking at his home on the night of his death.

Johnson -- who was on bail at the time -- claims she went out to buy more alcohol. When she returned, Mr Adamson started to make sexual advances and tried to tie her up with a light-fitting pull cord.

She panicked and, jumped onto his back tying the cord around his neck, strangled him to death.

Speaking in court on Wednesday, Johnson said she had 'flipped' after suffering a flashback to abuse she had suffered as a young girl.

Johnson claims she had struggled with Adamson, then tried to rescitate him, though consultant pathologist, Dr John Rutherford, said there was no sign of a struggle.