A teenage tearaway jailed for threatening and assaulting a witness due to testify against his friend has failed in a bid to have his sentence cut.

The 16-year-old from Craylands, in Basildon, appeared at Basildon Crown Court to appeal a 12 month sentence - which also includes the breach of an anti-social behaviour order.

The appeal bench heard how the thug had run up to the victim and shouted "if you don't drop the charges it wont be just you, it will be your family who get it". The young boy was then punched to the floor and kicked in the face and stomach by the accused. He suffered a bloody nose and grazes to his head.

Charlotte Eadie, mitigating on behalf of youth, claimed the offences were minor and that the four month sentences for each offence should have been served concurrently.

She said: "It is right to say that this boy was a persistent young offender but at the low the low end of the scale."

Throughout the hearing the smirking teenager sat in the dock wearing a white T-shirt and zipped-up blue jumper.

Looking over the youth's previous convictions, which include affray and robbery, Judge Joseph Gosschalk described him as "uncontrollable".

Judge Gosschalk agreed that the sentences should have been served concurrently, and not consecutively, but chose to increase them to eight months instead of the previous four.

The ASBO breach remained a seperate sentence of four months, meaning the teenager's time in custody would remain the same.