THE husband of a woman who is the victim of a five-year race-hate campaign says he fears for her life after being bombarded by fresh abuse.

Following a story about the abuse in Monday's Argus, Mark Taylor, 35, said problems had escalated, with more incidents of verbal abuse against them.

The 35-year-old and his wife Adriana, 23, say they are now reluctant to return to their house in Thornhill, Cwmbran.

Mr Taylor said he did not know how to protect his wife and young son against increasing abuse and violence.

They believe they are being targeted because Mrs Taylor is from the Czech Republic and from a Czech Roma gipsy family.

Mr Taylor said the new incidents, which include ripped up copies of the Argus being left on their doorstep, have left the family traumatised.

"We're not going back there," he said. "We don't know where to go. I've taken her to work and we could just end up sleeping in the office.

"She didn't sleep last night and got out all the weapons she could find, like knives from the kitchen, so we could protect ourselves."

During their five years in Cwmbran the family has had car tyres slashed, eggs thrown at their house and verbal abuse. "I don't know what to do next," said Mr Taylor. "We just don't know where to turn."

The couple, who met in a bar in Newport when Mrs Taylor was an asylum-seeker, are abused with chants of "get back to your own country".

The abuse turned to violence last Wednesday, when Mr Taylor was driving his wife, their son, Jake, five, and Mr Taylor's son from a previous marriage, Mitchell, ten, to the park. When Mr Taylor stopped a man from a car in front got out and started punching him to the head.

Police say they are treating the abuse as racially motivated, and are looking for a local man in connection with the assault.

Torfaen council leader Bob Wellington, whose Greenmeadow ward covers Thornhill, said: "Incidents like this are not acceptable in Thornhill or in any part of Torfaen.

"It is wrong that a family can't live their lives in peace. It is important that people report incidents like this to the police.

"Residents should not tolerate this behaviour in their community and we would encourage them to give any information they have about this to the police."