TWO men who carried out a savage and unprovoked attack on a gay student escaped jail terms.

Two national charities today said the sentences passed on Iestyn Bleddyn Watkins and David Challenger were too lenient and sent out the wrong message.

Watkins, aged 20, from Clydach Avenue, Rassau, was ordered to attend an anger management course and was given a 150-hour community service order.

Challenger, aged 22, of High Street, Ebbw Vale, was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

They had forced a battery-operated toothbrush and a bar of soap into the man's mouth after they burst into his Ebbw Vale home.

Throughout his ordeal the victim, 35, was subjected to threats of a sexual nature.

At an earlier hearing Judge Philip Richards had warned them that they faced a custodial sentence for the unprovoked attack after they pleaded guilty to affray.

Wendy Robinson, chairwoman of Victim's Voice, a London-based charity representing 13 victims' groups, and who sits on a government advisory committee, said: "This is the sort of thing we come up against all the time. "Sentencing varies wildly across Britain.

"This judge would have had the power to give a much stronger sentence." Dr Alison Parken, director of gay and lesbian charity Stonewall Cymru, said homophobia was still very prevalent in Wales, with many victims too frightened to report it to police.

She said: "There is still a very large gap between the number of homophobic crimes which take place and the number prosecuted." And a spokesman for the charity's London headquarters said: "It is important that courts and judges take these attacks seriously.

"We would like to point out that judges should be using their new powers under the Crime and Disorder Act."

The court was told the student only managed to escape when he pretended he needed to use the toilet, locked himself in and called police on his mobile.

While in the toilet he could hear the men trashing his house and overturning furniture.

Police would not comment on the sentences, but Detective Constable Martyn Jones, from Ebbw Vale CID, said they condemned all homophobic crimes.