Friends of 'sunshine island' murder victim Yvonne O'Brien have been telling of the life of the 'lovely girl who had a lot of problems.'

As they talked with fondness of the girl they knew as 'plonk' her brother hit back at allegations she was involved in outrageous activities including biz-arre sex games in her apartment in Majorca.

As he prepared to travel to the resort of Puerto de Alcudia to arrange her funeral Philip Graham, of Keighley, said: "She was not like that at all.

"Everyone dies, but it's the way she died which is the shocking part. This was absolutely horrific."

Yvonne's mutilated body was found on Monday in her rented apartment on the Spanish holiday island. She had been stabbed around 40 times.

The words 'peace', 'sex' and 'love' were scrawled in her blood around the flat in Puerto de Alcudia, and Spanish police believe she let her killer into her home.

Yesterday Yvonne O'Brien, nee Graham, was described by a childhood friend as a "likeable oddball" unable to settle in one place.

Yvonne, 44, was known to friends as "Plonk" during her teenage days at Bront School and Oakbank School.

One woman who worked with her at Oakworth firm Granville Chemicals describes her as a lovely girl who had a lot of problems.

She adds: "Yvonne wasn't a flamboyant person, just very odd - an individual. She was a nice girl - a good laugh.

"She was one of those people who always flirted around but she wouldn't have harmed anybody.

"She wasn't meant for Keighley. She was up and down the country all the time. She used to work here over the winter and take off over the summer."

After moving south in her mid-teens Yvonne married Bernard O'Brien, divorcing him several years ago. Their son, now 14, lives with his father.

Yvonne's brother Philip, 46, was yesterday planning to travel to Majorca to ensure Yvonne receives a plain and simple funeral on the island.

He says: "She wouldn't have wanted to come back here. She had been all over the world but she loved it there. She called it her sunshine island. I will be there for her sake, just so she isn't alone when she goes."

Mr Graham admits his sister was an alcoholic but says she was simply a free spirit who led a colourful life.

He rubbished neighbours' claims of a life that involved playing loud music in the street, getting thrown out of bars and entertaining many male visitors. Mr Graham says: "I think she probably chatted with someone in a bar and they'd gone back to her place.

"She would not have been on the same wavelength as anybody interested in sex.

"This picture being painted of a lonely, twisted person is rubbish.

"She had her own income and didn't need other people's finances."

"It didn't matter what you were, to Yvonne it was what you stood for that mattered.

"She could talk at great length about feelings and listen to other people's problems."

Yvonne's ex-husband, who lives in Buckinghamshire, was yesterday quoted as saying she had suffered drink problems during their marriage.

About five years ago Yvonne held 18 policemen at bay with a crossbow in a two-hour siege at her luxury home in Gerrards Cross.

Aylesbury Court heard that she threatened to throw a petrol bomb at officers and waved a sword at them.

She was sentenced to two years' probation including an order to undergo counselling because of her troubled background.

She left for Majorca soon afterwards, but retained a flat in High Wycombe. Neighbours claim she threatened a girl with a gun during one visit.

A post mortem examination has shown Yvonne bled to death from a throat wound. Police belive she may have known her killer.

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