AN armed woman shot dead in Sevenoaks wrote in her journal days beforehand she had nightmares of being killed by police.

But her former lover has denied she wanted to "end it all".

The revelations came at the long-awaited inquest into the death of Sevenoaks woman Ann Sanderson on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old known as "Tosh" made history when she became the first woman in the UK to be killed by police following a stand-off behind M&Co in the High Street.

The inquest heard Tosh, of Bethel Road, Sevenoaks, had a troubled life, and was raped aged 15. Things had gone wrong for her after the death of her mother when she was just nine.

She had periodically self-harmed and suffered bouts of severe depression, particularly in May and June, around the anniversary of her mother's death.

Growing up, she had been in trouble with police for crimes including arson, criminal damage and carrying an offensive weapon. Ms Sumner said her partner had done this for attention.

On Monday, April 12, the jury was shown CCTV footage of the moments leading up to Tosh's death.

She was seen brandishing what was believed to be a handgun in the town centre in the early hours of June 11, 2007.

She pointed the weapon at CCTV cameras several times, set fire to one industrial bin and attempted to set light to another.

Watching her from Sevenoaks District Council's control room, CCTV operative Patricia Parcelle told police: "I'd watched her for several years now and I'd never seen her like this. She definitely pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the camera."

When asked by Paul Bowen, who is representing Edenbridge resident Ms Sumner, what she thought Tosh was doing, Ms Sumner said: "She was not able to control those feelings that had been brought back to her and she needed to get to a safe place again. The way she had done that was to attract the attention of police, get herself arrested and be looked after in prison where it was safe."

Housing association officer Ms Sumner first met Tosh in July 1999. She had recently been released from prison and was re-homed in a property for which Ms Sumner was responsible. Tosh was given the job of gardener, and the pair became friends.

Tosh, who had kept a journal called My Thoughts, My Feelings, My Fears since a teenager, had written in it she planned to ask Ms Sumner to marry her.

Extracts of her diary, which she kept since she was a teenager, were read out by Mr Bowen.

Ms Sumner told the inquest Tosh, who grew up in Edenbridge, suffered from insomnia and would go out walking late at night.

But she believed she was constantly being watched by CCTV.

Ms Sumner said: "Tosh, from when I first knew her, believed that the CCTV cameras in the town of Sevenoaks and Edenbridge, or where she was at the time, would follow her and the CCTV operators would make a point of following her. She found this particularly intrusive."

Tosh even wrote to Kent Police Chief Constable Michael Fuller telling him she had changed.

On the night she was killed, Insp Mick Millen said in a conversation heard on the CCTV: "I know she has said, in the past, she would kill a police officer."

But no written evidence was produced at the inquest to support this.

Ms Sumner told Mr Bowen: "That's nothing she had ever said to me, or I had ever been aware of."

Earlier Ms Sumner had admitted Tosh had not liked the police.

When Tanya Robinson came to quiz Ms Sumner on behalf of Kent Police, she asked if she had difficulty in the idea Tosh might have wanted to "end it all" that night.

"That isn't what she would have done," replied Ms Sumner.

Nevertheless, she did accept Tosh had kept things from her, including the fact she bought an air pistol on June 3.

Tosh had been cornered by armed police at around 2.40am in the car park behind M&Co.

After a brief standoff she was shot and died from a single gunshot to the chest.

She was pronounced dead at 3.10am.

A toxicology report found alcohol and Nurofen in her bloodstream.

The inquest continues.