A 30 year old woman who stabbed a Cheltenham supermarket security guard with a needle while trying to leave the store with bottles of alcohol worth £250 has been jailed for 20 months.

At Gloucester Crown Court on Thursday (July 23) prosecutor Neil Treharne said that on September 16th last year Jade Brice, of Southgate Street , Gloucester, was in Sainsburys in Tewkesbury Road, Cheltenham, and began hiding bottles in a foil lined bag and also in her jacket.

"An alert security officer heard the clanging of bottles as Brice tried to leave the store without paying for the items," Mr Treharne said.

"He challenged Brice and asked her to stop. The security guard grabbed hold of her bag and Brice tried prevents this. A tussle ensued.

"Brice then managed to get hold of another bag containing needles and with one needle in her hand she struck out at the security guard who was immediately in pain. He managed to extract the needle and threw it onto the floor.

"Brice, having already stabbed her victim, made a grab for another needle and she stabbed him with it in the leg while he attempted to restrain her.

"She then dug her nails into his skin, making small cuts, and continued to scratch him and scream at him, saying that she had Hepatitis C. She went to her needle bag for a third time and continued to scrap with him for a total of seven minutes, during which time other store staff gathered around and tried to intervene.

"The victim describes the incident as very worrying because of the fear of catching Hepatitis C. He went to hospital for tests and initially it was negative, but he was later recalled as this test had given a false reading. The second test however was also negative.

"The victim said that the incident had given him nightmares and he couldn't sleep and had developed mental health issues and had become extremely anxious."

Mr Treharne explained that Brice was also before the court for a string of offences that included theft and the fraudulent use of a bank card.

"Brice had formed a relationship with a man who committed domestic burglaries and she used the bank cards from these burglaries almost immediately to obtain various items for herself and her partner," he said.

Sarah Jenkins, defending, said Brice was suffering at the hands of others and she was effectively trying to make money to fund her own drug addiction.

"She was vulnerable and was being exploited. She was often under the influence of drugs," Ms Jenkins said.

"This was due to a combination of factors of being of no fixed abode and her Class A drug addiction had come to the attention of others who preyed on her.

"Brice has been in prison for some time during which she has been subjected to a lot of counselling and is slowly being medicated off her drug habit.

"Women on remand don't normally get access to many of these services, but she is determined to improve her life in the future and has made representations to the prison authorities to help her.

"Brice has effectively served a custodial term of a year's imprisonment."

Brice pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm to the security guard on September 16, 2020.

She also admitted stealing Diesel jeans to the value of £360 from John Lewis in Cheltenham on January 28, 2020; the theft of clothes and goods to the value of £399 from Sainsburys in Cheltenham; dishonestly committing fraud by false representation by using a stolen bank card on January 28, 2020 in Tesco Express, in Best One Store in Albion Street and the Premier store in St James Street totalling £86.19; On April 15, 2020 stole alcohol and food valued at £160 from Sainsburys and on July 19, 2020, stole steaks and beers to the value of £29.95 from BP Simply Food Garage.

Judge Ian Lawrie QC said to Brice: "Despite all your efforts at improving your situation I am still going to have to punish you. I appreciate that you have a raft of difficulties that still need dealing with.

"I am pleased that your medication is being reduced to such a level that it will shortly be withdrawn as you no longer need it.

"You went equipped for the main actual bodily harm offence against a security officer in September last year and reacted in a violent way and put up substantial resistance in the process.

"However you do have a lot of mitigation to consider and on reflection the custodial sentence will be 20 months, a large portion of which you have already served and you will be released in a couple of months into the care of a residential rehabilitation centre.

"This sentence also clears all your outstanding cases for a variety of offences of theft and the fraudulent use of bank cards."

The judge also ordered that Brice be prohibited from entering the Sainsbury's store in Cheltenham for five years.

He offered Brice his best wishes for sorting her life out in the future.