A VIOLENT teenager has been given an eight-and-a-half year sentence for carrying out a horrific hammer attack on a frail shopkeeper.

Ben Watkins, 17, will serve four-and-a-half years behind bars, and four years on licence, after attacking the 54-year-old in his corner shop in Southchurch Avenue, Southend, at about 5pm on December 30.

The Echo would not have been allowed to name Watkins because he is a juvenile, but judge Christopher Mitchell, sitting at Basildon Crown Court, agreed to our request to lift reporting restrictions because of the severity of his crime.

* SEE THURSDAY'S ECHO FOR FULL REPORT