A HOMELESS man strangled a shop worker and wrestled him to the floor after he was confronted for trying to steal sandwiches, a court heard.

Ashley Lacey-Pring, 29, was on bail at the time for repeatedly raping a woman in a hotel room for four days.

Prosecutor, Tim Moores, told Bournemouth Crown Court on November 14 that the defendant was homeless at the time awaiting trial for rape and sexual offences, which he was later convicted.

On January 21, 2024, Lacey-Pring entered Asda Service Station, on Holdenhurst Road in Bournemouth, and attempted to steal sandwiches under his coat.

Staff members confronted him and were able to remove one of the sandwiches while asking him to hand over the second.

Mr Moores said the defendant became “very agitated” when another staff member intervened and tried to clam him down.

The staff relented and told Lacey-Pring he could keep the sandwich and was asked to leave.

However, he responded with: “F*** no, I’m not leaving.”

The shop assistants continued to urge him to leave the store when the defendant suddenly lunged at one of the workers.

Lacey-Pring grabbed the man’s throat with both hands and the pair fell to the floor.

READ MORE: Man ‘obsessed with sex’ repeatedly abused woman in hotel room for four days

CCTV shown to the court displayed the defendant and the shop worker struggling on the floor for a prolonged time, while a security guard attempted to release his grip.

The defendant was eventually pulled off the man, who was struggling to breathe, and detained until police officers arrived.

The man told the court in a victim impact statement that the incident had a “massive impact” on his day-to-day life and that the stress and anxiety has been “unimaginable”.

He had to take two and a half months off of work and has been working closely with counsellors to ‘move forward’.

“To this day if there is a confrontation in store, my anxiety goes through the roof,” he said.

“I understand the [defendant] may have his own issues but what they have done to me is unacceptable and there no excuse for it.”

Mitigating, Christopher Pix, said the incident was impulsive and “came out of a place of self-loathing and frustration and humiliation”.

He added that the defendant, to some extent, felt ‘surrounded and trapped’ as well as embarrassed for having to steal sandwiches.

Judge Jonathan Fuller KC jailed Lacey-Pring, of no fixed abode, for 15 years for intentional strangulation, attempted theft and the separate incident.