A thief who bit a Carlisle shopkeeper as he tried to stop her stealing wine has been locked up for 15 months.

Violence flared as 27-year-old Danielle Nicholson and fellow shoplifter Tania Liddle, 35, targeted the city's Fusehill Street Spar store in May last year.

Plucky employee David Forrester tackled the pair but was struck by Liddle before Nicholson sank her teeth into his arm. Mr Forrester was also attacked with a broken bottle by an accomplice who was never identified.

The two women were sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court today having each admitted charges of affray and the theft of alcohol valued at £14.

Judge Peter Davies noted that the incident occurred at 9.30pm, and insisted that "vulnerable" shopkeepers needed to be protected.

As a result he handed down immediate 15-month prison sentences to both Nicholson, of Chatsworth Square, Carlisle, and Liddle, of Heathfield Crescent, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Judge Davies told the pair: "This was a disgraceful incident."