A TEENAGER is terrified of walking the streets alone after suffering a racially motivated bottle attack.

Ashley Suleyman, 17, says he is emotionally and physically scarred from the unprovoked late-night assault in a secluded alley.

He was walking along a path in Beaminster when two men slammed a bottle repeatedly across his head leaving him with deep cuts and bruises.

The self-employed gardener was forced to take four days off work to recover from the assault, but the emotional effects are far more long lasting. Ashley, of The Beeches in Beaminster, said: “I have been out since but not around that area. I’m wary of what is going on around me. I don’t like walking around on my own any more and I make sure I have my mates with me.

“I’m feeling angry and scared, but what can I do?

“I didn’t go to work for four days. I was sick every day, I had a headache and sometimes I just couldn’t get out of bed.”

Ashley was in an alley between the Yarn Barton car park and Fleet Street looking for his friends last Wednesday when he was attacked by the two men, believed to be aged between 19 and 23 years.

He said: “One asked me if I wanted a drink, I said no, and he said ‘you’re having one anyway’ and hit me on the head with a bottle.”

“The bottle smashed, he hit me again and was going to hit me for a third time but I ran off.

“I knew they didn’t know me and were doing it to cause trouble. I thought I would be knocked out.”

Ashley, a former Beaminster School pupil, has lived in the town all his life, but dad Mehmet is originally from north Cyprus. The teenager believes his foreign appearance could have been a motive for the vicious attack.

Ashley said: “They did walk past someone else who I know and they just left him alone, but then targeted me so I think it could have been something to do with race.

“I have had lots of hassle before, but never in Beaminster. When I was in Exeter I was stabbed and bottled when I was about 11 years old. You would think in Beaminster it doesn’t happen, but it does unfortunately.”

Ashley admits he has ‘fallen apart’ after his past ordeals and now suffers with bipolar disorder but controls it with medication.

He believes his medication and the support of dad Mehmet and girlfriend Maria Gosney, 15, has helped him to deal with this latest attack.

Police are appealing for information and witnesses. Contact acting police inspector Steve Hughes in confidence on 01202 222222 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 quoting crime number 27159.

Both attackers are described as white. One is around 6ft tall and was wearing an Adidas baseball cap and jogging bottoms, and a white Nike hooded top.

The other is said to be between 5ft 8in and 6ft tall with a shaved head. He was wearing a pink polo shirt and jeans.