A member of staff at a petrol station was dragged around the forecourt and kicked by two robbers as she closed up for the night.
James Shacklady was one of two men who violently snatched the Sainsbury's worker's handbag, leaving her "fearing for her life". He sobbed as he was jailed over the sickening attack.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday that victim Deborah Green was locking up the petrol station at the supermarket on Rice Lane with a colleague at around 10pm on January 4 last year. Henry Riding, prosecuting, described how she had been lowering the shutters when she became aware of a man running towards her.
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The employee was then attacked by two males wearing dark clothing. One grabbed at her handbag and shouted "let go of the f***ing bag" as he "pulled violently at it".
Ms Green was thrown to the floor during the struggle and dragged across the ground by her assailants. Her high-vis jacket was also pulled off amid the altercation, while the second attacker kicked her as she lay stricken.
The bag – which contained her house keys and car keys, her bank cards, her Nectar card and her vape – was eventually pulled from her grip, and the attackers made off with it. Shacklady, of Nansen Grove in Walton, was subsequently linked to the incident after forensic examination revealed his DNA on the right sleeve of her jacket.
The 32-year-old was arrested on January 27 2023, but denied any involvement in the incident under interview. Ms Green said in a statement read out to the court on her behalf: "I feared for my life.
"The attack was awful. The pain ran all the way down my right hand side, I was unable to walk properly.
"For weeks after the incident, I felt like a prisoner in my own home. I locked myself away.
"I stayed inside, thinking about the incident over and over. I thought about how my injuries could have been a lot worse.
"It feels as though my independence has been taken away from me. They have robbed me of so much more than my handbag.
"I'm constantly looking around checking to see who is there, thinking that could be the one who attacked me – I'm not the same confident person I once was. I cannot believe that someone would to this to another person.
"I'm fearful every day now. I was just working and should never have been subjected to such an awful attack."
Shacklady has 36 previous convictions for 42 "minor" offences. These include charges of possession of drugs and travelling on a railway without paying a fare.
Stella Hayden, defending, told the court: "He has had a troubled history and an unstable upbringing. He is plainly someone who has his own vulnerabilities.
"As a result of that troubled background, he has struggled to gain and maintain employment throughout his adult life. It perhaps sheds light on the young man before the court.
"It is his first offence of violence. He is not somebody who is heavily convicted.
"It could have been opportunistic. It could simply have been that the offenders were in the area at the time.
"That said, there is the coincidence of the timing. Clearly, it is a serious incident."
Shacklady admitted robbery on the second day of his trial in November last year. He wept and wiped tears from his eyes with a tissue in the dock throughout today's hearing as he was jailed for 45 months.
Sentencing, Judge David Aubrey KC said: "The evidence against you was overwhelming. This offence is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence is justified for it.
"As I understand it, you live in close proximity to that petrol station. While an inference could be drawn that the offence was premeditated, in my judgement it would be unsafe to draw that inference.
"At the time, you were with another person. You were dressed in dark clothing.
"It just so happened that at that time, she was closing up the patrol station with another employee. She was grabbed by one of you quite forcefully.
"She was told in no uncertain terms to let go of her handbag. As a result of the robbery, she was off work for some seven weeks.
"She undoubtedly sustained severe psychological harm. You and your accomplice were responsible for the occasioning of that harm.
"You do have a number of previous convictions, but the vast majority relate to offences at the low end of the scale. You have never been before the court for any offence of violence."
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