A MAN who struck a 16-year-old boy full in the face with a metal bar after ambushing him in the street in a revenge attack has been jailed for more than five years.

Shiaz Vilayat inflicted a deep forehead wound that left the student's skull visible beneath, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The teenager, who has grown his hair to conceal his "obvious and livid scar", missed weeks of studies and has counselling for post traumatic stress.

Vilayat, 37, of Charteris Road, Lower Grange, Bradford, lay in wait for the boy and his sister who were walking up Broughton Road, Skipton, on the afternoon of December 11, prosecutor Rebecca Young said yesterday TUES.

He was dressed all in black and had travelled from Bradford to Skipton, armed with a metal pole, to exact retribution in a long-standing family fall-out, the court was told.

Miss Young said Vilayat and some of his relatives had not spoken for three years.

The boy and his sister had called at Morrisons supermarket after attending a youth centre in Otley Street.

Vilayat jumped out in front of them and hit the boy full in the face with the pole. He was knocked to the floor but got to his feet and fled with his sister, pursued by the defendant.

They were forced to take shelter at a house in Midland Street.

The boy needed six stitches to a six centimetre deep wound to his forehead that left his skull visible underneath, Miss Young said.

He stepped forward from the public gallery to show the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, his scar.

Vilayat told the police he had spent all that day at home in Bradford suffering from flu.

He pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a trial date had been fixed at the Crown Court.

Vilayat's barrister, Elyas Patel, said he delivered a single blow with a Hoover metal extension pipe.

He was on his way to remonstrate with family members and met up with the boy and his sister by chance in the street.

"It was not his intention to seek out this complainant and mete out retribution," Mr Patel said.

There was "a protracted fall-out" in the family arising from a land dispute in Pakistan.

"It was a moment of madness to make a stand and protect his own," Mr Patel said.

"He has been banished from the family fold and no stone has been left unturned in letting him know.

"He bitterly regrets what he did and so wishes he could turn the clock back."

Judge Thomas said it was a "full in the face" blow that could have killed the boy.

"He has a very obvious, livid scar in the middle of his forehead," he said.

Vilyat, who was already in custody, was imprisoned for five years and five months.