Kidman has her day in court with snapper

Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman today told a packed Australian court that she was "really, really scared" and feared an accident when a celebrity photographer pursued her in a car chase across Sydney. Kidman was testifying in photographer Jamie Fawcett's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper that attacked him for allegedly hounding the Oscar-winning actress. Looking prim in a grey skirt, high-necked cream blouse and pink cardigan, Kidman told the New South Wales Supreme Court how she had been "in tears and distressed" after an incident three years ago when Fawcett allegedly ran red lights and jumped the median strip in what she termed a "crazy'' pursuit.

The actress said she was crouched down in the back seat during the drive to her parents' house on January 23, 2005. She said the trip quickly turned into a hair-raising chase as a vehicle carrying Fawcett and another vehicle, believed to contain his assistant, lurched through traffic on either side of Kidman's car. "I was frightened and I was worried there was going to be an accident," Kidman said.

Kidman described two other times that Fawcett had allegedly been intrusive when trying to photograph her - once while she was on her honeymoon with country music star Keith Urban in Tahiti in mid-2006, and once after Christmas in Sydney last year. She said he was one of the reasons she employed full-time security guards.

"I have been pursued many times," said Kidman, who is in Sydney working on a movie epic called Australia. "I have had this happen in relation to this particular man ... so many times. I employ people to protect me now. I employ people 24 hours to protect myself because I don't feel equipped to handle things," she said.

A jury has already found that an article in the Sun-Herald which said that Fawcett was determined to "wreak havoc" on Kidman's private life defamed the photographer. The current hearing is to decide whether the newspaper's publisher, Fairfax Media, should pay him damages, and how much.