A CONVICTED killer who mugged a young woman walking home at night near York city centre has been jailed for nearly four years.

Jordan Hipkins came up behind the woman on his bicycle as she tried to "power walk" away from him, said Rob Galley, prosecuting.

She screamed when he grabbed her shoulder from behind and told her in a loud, aggressive voice: “Give me your bag", York Crown Court heard.

When she threw her bag to the ground, he scooped it up and rode off, leaving her distraught and running up and down the road in panic, said Mr Galley.

She now feels worried whenever she sees a bike, is frightened to go out on her own and has nightmares of being chased along a street or feeling an arm on her shoulder, said Mr Galley.

“This was a vulnerable woman, 19 years of age, on her own at night, clearly targeted by you,” Judge Simon Hickey told Hipkins.

Mr Galley said the woman had been visiting York and had been at a friend’s house late on September 23.

Around midnight, she was walking down James Street on her way to another friend’s house where she was staying.

As she walked past Lidl, she became aware of Hipkins on his bicycle behind her and started to walk a bit faster.

Worried that he was following her and not overtaking her, she upped her speed until she was “power walking”, said Mr Galley.

Then Hipkins robbed her and as he did so, she saw he had something that was curved and about seven or eight inches long, Mr Galley told the court.

Hipkins was on a suspended prison sentence for stealing from charity boxes in churches at the time and had previously served a five-year jail term for the manslaughter of a friend by injecting him with heroin, said Mr Galley.  He had 76 previous convictions, the court heard.

Mr Galley said Hipkins took the woman’s card to Londis on Bridge Street and tried to buy items with it “within minutes” of the robbery.

He was arrested when he attended a probation services appointment wearing some of the same clothes and riding the same bicycle as he had used in the robbery, the court heard.

Defence barrister Laura Addy said the item the woman had seen was a bicycle pump. It had not been used to threaten or attack her and Hipkins had used minimal force.

“This offence was opportunistic and unplanned and directly the consequence of this defendant’s long standing and very difficult drug addiction,” she said.

Hipkins, 29, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery and fraud by using the woman’s bank card.

He was jailed for three years and four months, plus three months of the 18-week suspended prison sentence he was subject to at the time.

The judge said of Hipkins: “It is a classic case, if ever there was one, of drugs ruining a young life.”

Ms Addy said Hipkins was taken into care when he was 10 and was smoking heroin by the age of 16 under the influence of “others in the care system”.

He had first been sent to custody for crimes when he was a juvenile and had got his academic qualifications at Wetherby Young Offenders Institution.

Between 2009 and 2018 he had managed to stay crime free, but had then been jailed and fallen into a cycle of going to prison, associating with drug users and criminals when released and going back behind bars, the court heard.

He had attention deficit hyperactive disorder and drug psychosis, the court was told.