A WOMAN who attacked and threatened to kill a Daily Echo photographer outside a Hampshire court has been fined £600.

Tara Jennings assaulted the female journalist as she attempted to take pictures of her mother, who had just been sentenced for cheating taxpayers out of £50,000 in benefits.

When the pair emerged from Southampton Crown Court, the photographer, who was standing on public property on the other side of London Road, began trying to take Lee-Anne Jennings’ picture.

But her 20-year-old daughter immediately launched a foul-mouthed verbal assault on the 33- year-old and made an obscene gesture in her direction.

In a bid to get a picture without the daughter in shot, the photographer moved to get another shot as the pair walked down the ramp away from the courthouse.

Jennings continued her verbal abuse as she walked towards the Daily Echo worker, screaming: “I’m going to kill you.”

She then stormed up to the photographer, grabbing her arm and repeatedly shouting threats that she would kill her.

The photographer told police: “I didn’t know what she was going to do next. I just froze.

“I had all sorts of thoughts going through my head and I felt scared. I actually thought I was going to get hurt.”

Jennings, of Severn Road, Southampton, eventually let go after a passer-by asked the photographer if she was all right.

The photographer added in her police statement: “I felt like I was going to throw up and that I was going to have a panic attack.

“I was worried and didn’t feel safe, even when I got into my car.

“I felt really scared about what was going to happen to me and I’ve never felt like that in the 13 years I’ve been doing my job – that has never happened to me before.”

After the incident on October 27, police charged Jennings with a public order offence of using threatening words or behaviour to make someone fear unlawful violence would be used against them.

She failed to turn up to her initial hearing at Southampton Magistrates’ Court, but a warrant was issued for her arrest and she was detained by officers two days later.

Appearing back before the court she was fined £350, and ordered to pay £85 costs, £150 compensation and a £15 victim surcharge.

After the court hearing, Daily Echo editor-in-chief Ian Murray said: “This was a nasty incident and I’m glad that the courts took it seriously.

“Echo journalists have as much right to go about their business without being threatened as anyone else in the community.”