Serial Bristol shoplifter jailed after attack on Big Issue seller

A man from Bristol who assaulted a teenage Big Issue seller after she challenged him for stealing from a shop has been jailed.

Ashley Stephen Payne, 32, of Fishponds was sentenced to 44 weeks after admitting 23 offences.

They included an assault on a 19-year-old woman - the Big Issue seller - which police described as a "cowardly and unnecessary act of aggression".

The other charges he admitted to at Bristol Magistrates' Court included a separate assault on a 41-year-old shop worker and 16 counts of theft which all happened in the Fishponds and Staple Hill areas this year.

Sgt Andrew Bradshaw, of the Fishponds Neighbourhood Policing team, said: “We’re pleased with the custodial sentence given to Payne by the court for the series of offences he committed in our local community over a two-month spell.

“The attack on the 19-year-old woman was a particularly cowardly and unnecessary act of aggression – all because she challenged him for stealing from a local store.

“It’s taken persistence and hard work by the neighbourhood team and our colleagues in the Detainee Investigation Team to investigate this series of offences and gather the evidence needed to secure these convictions.”