A huntswoman facing criminal charges for whipping an animal rights activist with a riding crop died when her horse fell on top of her ahead of the court case, an inquest heard.

Jane Goring, 57, also known as Jane Miller, was crushed to death when the animal reared up and toppled over during a draghunt in Leigh, Surrey.

She was trying to calm the horse, which had got tangled up in barbed wire in a field, at the time of the fatal accident on November 6, 2018.

It came a month after Mrs Goring learned she faced a private prosecution for allegedly assaulting two saboteurs who interrupted a draghunt in East Sussex in 2017.

She was seen thrashing one up to 17 times with her riding crop and calling his group "uneducated peasants" in footage that went viral online at the time.