COUNCILLORS in a Gwent town are calling for tougher sentences for violent offenders after a teenager was beaten up in an apparently motiveless attack.

Ebbw Vale ward members Brian Clements and John Rogers made the call in response to last Friday's unprovoked assault on teenager Gavin Hawkins in the town.

Mr Hawkins, who had moved to Ebbw Vale from Risca just two weeks before, was walking his dog along Victoria Drive when a dark blue or purple Ford Fiesta pulled up alongside him at around 9.30pm.

The five men inside got out and beat Mr Hawkins in an attack that left him nursing a broken wrist, a fractured jaw, a suspected broken nose and a swollen eye.

He says he is now too scared to walk the streets even in daylight hours in case the gang "want to finish off what they started".

Gwent Police are now appealing for information about the unknown assailants who drove off in the direction of the town centre following the incident.

Councillor Clements said he was disgusted by the attack.

He said: "I'm appalled by the way that some of these youngsters are behaving in Ebbw Vale. In surgeries that I hold people are always complaining about youngsters abusing them in the streets. ASBOs and all the rest of it don't seem to be working and I'm at my wits' end."

And he said that when violent offenders are caught, "I think we are being too lenient with them."

He added: "It is going to get to the point where people will gang together to do something about it."

Fellow Ebbw Vale councillor John Rogers said: "It is quite appalling that individuals cannot walk down the streets without having fear of this action.

"It would perhaps be helpful if a far stronger approach to ASBO solutions was taken by magistrates. When police bring in ASBO prosecutions, the reactions of magistrates are not as forthright as they should be."

If anyone has information about the assault they are urged to ring Ebbw Vale police station on 01495 350999 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.