A TEENAGER left a former friend with a fractured eye socket and a broken nose after smashing him in the face with a metal bar.

Shay Ennis, 19, attacked Levi Shaw in the car park of the Morrisons supermarket in Bargoed after the pair had fallen out over £60 debt.

The background behind the row was unclear but Cardiff Crown Court heard there had been the sale of cannabis to the victim.

Ennis pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Shaw on the day of his trial.

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He did so on the basis he acted in excessive self-defence after claiming the victim went to his boot to take out a wheel brace with which he was going to assault him.

Julia Cox, prosecuting, said the two men had once been friends and had gone to school together before drifting apart.

Their paths crossed again when some cannabis was sold to Mr Shaw.

Ennis maintains that the £60 was “a loan and not a drug debt” and that he found the metal bar at the scene and had not taken it there.

The two had arranged to meet at Morrisons on Wednesday, March 13, 2022 where the violence erupted.

Mr Shaw was treated at the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil after he received a scalp wound as well as the fractured eye socket and broken nose.

In a victim impact statement, he revealed: “I used to be out and about all the time but now all I want to do is stay in bed.

“I’ve had to move away from my local area.

“I have been diagnosed with PTSD and I struggle to sleep and I suffer with anxiety and depression.

“It has changed my life for the worst.”

Ennis, of Sannan Street, Aberbargoed, Caerphilly had no previous convictions.

His lawyer Ed Mitchard said his client was aged just 16 when he committed the offence and had not been in trouble since.

“The delay in this case is inexplicable,” he told the court.

Mr Mitchard added that Ennis had a well-paid job working as a carpenter on the railways and was looking to emigrate.

Judge Christopher Vosper KC told the defendant that many questions in this case remained “unanswered” but added he had caused his victim “significant injuries”.

He added: “These actions were excessive and more than self-defence.”

He sent Ennis to a young offender institution for 12 months but suspended the sentence for 12 months.

The defendant will have to complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and pay a victim surcharge.