Co-op worker’s remarkable words of kindness to violent shoplifter who attacked her
A heroic Co-op worker who was brutally attacked by a violent shoplifter says she has forgiven him after seeing him sent to jail.
Charlene Sweet’s bandaged head and blood-soaked top has become the defining image of Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.
The 28-year-old shop assistant tried to stop thief George Talbott from leaving a Co-op store with two bottles of alcohol in Bournemouth, Dorset, on June 29 last year.
As she tried to grab one of the bottles, Talbott used it to crack her over the side of her head.
The incident left Charlene with a blood-soaked uniform and a nasty injury which had to be glued up in hospital.
Now, one year later, Talbott has been sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding and theft.
The violent drug addict was called an idiot by a judge who jailed him for 23 months.
The judge praised Charlene’s ‘Christian spirit’ after she spoke from the public gallery, saying she had forgiven her attacker.
In response to her statement, the judge said: ‘That is not something you hear very often these days, and very Christian of you.’
Speaking for the prosecution, Rob Griffiths said Talbott had ignored his victim’s pleas to leave behind the bottle of Kopparberg cider and a WKD alcopop after being caught.
Mr Griffiths said: ‘He was outside the shop and she made an attempt to grab back the stock.
‘There was a struggle and [Charlene] felt an impact on the left side of her head.
‘Something didn’t feel right and there was a ringing in her ears.
‘She could see glass on the floor and felt blood streaming down her. She started to shout and scream for help.’
The court heard that the blow left Charlene with a 2cm wound which was gushing with blood.
It heard she had her head glued, but was asked to come back to work just two days later.
Talbott’s photo was circulated and he was arrested three weeks later.
In her victim impact statement, read out by the prosecutor in court, Charlene said she had challenged shoplifters before as shop owners expected staff to.
But she said she never expected to face such an ‘ordeal’, and since the attack she has avoided confronting shoplifters ‘out of fear’.
Charlene has since left Co-op and now works at Tesco where she feels ‘safer’.
She said: ‘He would have got away much quicker if he had listened to me and not chose violence and harm.
‘I suppose it is a relief he did not hit me harder, because he could have ruined my life and taken me from my family.’
The court heard that Talbott, who had been a heroin addict since he was 17, had 10 previous convictions for 35 offences, predominantly shoplifting.
He also has convictions for theft and assault.
Mark Florida-James, mitigating, said the defendant had ‘genuine remorse’ and was ‘ashamed of how he had behaved’.
He said Talbott had cleaned up his act since being taken into custody in December.
A report commissioned by the Co-op earlier this year revealed there was a staggering 336,270 incidents of theft, abuse and attacks on staff at Co-Op stores last year, a 44 per cent increase on 2022.
The company, which runs 2,400 community stores, saw a 37 per cent surge in incidents of anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse, taking the figure to 41,875.