Woman arrested after stubbing lit cigarette in reporter's face

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

An Australian woman has been arrested after stubbing a cigarette in the face of a TV reporter.

The 23-year-old woman had been at Caboolture Magistrates Court, north of Brisbane, to hear murder charges against her friend.

Video shows her blowing smoke towards reporters covering the trial before reaching over and stubbing a lit cigarette in 9news reporter Alex Bernhardt’s face. She has been charged with public nuisance.

Bernhardt escaped mostly unscathed. The cigarette left “a bit of a red mark…but I don’t want to blow it out of proportion, it’s gone now,” she told the Daily Mail Australia.

“It certainly wasn’t something I was expecting when you’re doing your job,” she added.

9news were at the court to cover the trial of 26-year-old father Freeman Brookes who died in a service station from apparent stab wounds last week.

The woman who put her cigarette out was there to support her friend, and the victim’s former girlfriend, Stevee Jane Kennedy, who has been charged with his murder.

This was not the first time Bernhardt has faced hostility on the job, the Daily Mail Australia reported that she once had a bucket full of water thrown over her by a man she was questioning about possessing a hand grenade.