A TEENAGER who "wilfully and persistently" breached an anti-social behaviour order was locked up by magistrates yesterday.

Ryan Ahern's sentence was welcomed by a community leader who said it delivered the right message.

Seventeen-year-old Ahern received the order in 2004 along with two other youths after a court was told they imposed months of misery on people living on the Broadmead and Moorland Park Estates in Newport.

One of the conditions of the Asbo was that Ahern, of Moorland Park, was not to enter neighbouring Broadmead. Last May he was given a detention and training order for breaching the Asbo.

He was back in court yesterday where he admitted another four breaches by visiting Broadmead on four separate occasions in April and May.

Although it was a youth court where naming of defendants is not normally allowed, the magistrates granted an application by the Argus to lift reporting restrictions and allowed us to name Ahern as well as use his address, age and photograph.

When sentencing the teenager, they said they had taken into account his guilty pleas and time he had already spent remanded in custody.

But the magistrates pointed out they were not the first breaches of the order and they sentenced him to a six-month detention and training order because he had "wilfully and persistently" broken the requirements of the Asbo.

Gareth Driscoll, defending, said the breaches were of a completely different nature to the type of behaviour which led to the imposition of the Asbo.

"He was either walking through that part of the estate or just standing there.

"His behaviour was as bad as that. Effectively he put himself in a place where he never should have been.

"Although Ryan Ahern may be in technical breach of the Asbo, the menace that was targeted by you or your colleagues has not manifested itself."

Mr Driscoll said on each occasion, the teenager had been going to and from the home of his girlfriend who lived on Broadmead.

After the sentencing, Councillor Allan Morris, whose ward encompasses Broadmead and Moorland Park, said: "It sends out the right message.

"It is important people realise that if they breach an Asbo there are serious consequences. It is sad that people do not heed their final warning but at least the community can breathe a sigh of relief."