A WOMAN who directed transphobic abuse towards a person she passed in the street has been sentenced by a court.

Andrea Brierley used threatening or abusive words during the incident in Barrow on September 9, South Cumbria Magistrates' Court.

The 55-year-old defendant, of Barrow's Egerton Court, admitted the offence when she appeared before the court.

She was fined £180 and prohibited from approaching the victim for a year under a restraining order.

The court uplifted her fine from £120 to £180 for committing a transphobic hate crime and also ordered her to pay £85 in prosecution costs.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: "We are dedicated to bringing perpetrators of homophobic and transphobic hate crime to justice."