A FORMER prostitute has revealed how she was saved from a life of vice and drug addiction when a Labour politician took her into his home.

Julie Long, 27, was working the streets and hooked on heroin when she was picked up by Rod Hills, who until last year was the leader of York City Council.

He took pity on her, allowed her to live with him, encouraged her to go back into education and spent £3,000 on drug rehabillitation until she had beaten her habit.

Mr Hills, who was leader of York City Council from 1984 to 2002, died in July, aged 57, while visiting a flat in the Chapeltown area of Leeds.

Ms Long now lives alone in Mr Hills' spacious 19th Century terraced home in York and is continuing with a GCSE course in psychology.

She said: "He took me out of that life and gave me a new life, and that's what keeps me strong."

But Ms Long claimed that ironically, Mr Hills had himself taken crack cocaine in the last months of his life in reaction to stress and unhappiness in his life.

Mr Hills lost his seat on York council after the police began an investigation into the death of his wife, Carol.

Mrs Hills, also a York councillor, died in 2000 in a fall at the couple's home. An inquest decided she died accidentally.

The case was reopened by the police earlier this year but closed on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Ms Long said: "I'm sure part of his problems were caused by the death of his wife.

"I miss him like mad. He was always kind to me. Had it not been for Rod, I would probably still be street-walking in Bristol and on drugs."