A TEENAGER broke a schoolboy’s eye socket in a revenge attack after accusing him of bullying a friend.

Gabriel Smith was just 17 when he carried out the attack on a 16-year-old schoolboy who was halfway through taking his GCSEs last summer and who missed two exams because of his injuries.

He met the victim when he was with a group of friends in Clifford Park in Kingsteignton in May last year and they were walking to a nearby shop when he carried out the attack in an alleyway.

He hit the boy without warning and the blow was so hard he was knocked against a wall, bruising the back of his head.

Smith, aged 18, of River Close, Kingsteignton, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was ordered to attend 29 days of activity requirements and do 120 hours’ unpaid community work by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: ‘You were just 17 last May when, as a result of what you were told about a 16-year-old bullying someone you knew, you decided to take action against him.

‘You ran up to him and landed a heavy punch, hitting him in the face. He was left with a fractured right eye socket and had to undergo surgery under general anaesthetic. It resulted in him suffering double vision and missing a couple of GCSEs.

‘I have no doubt you did not intend to cause the injuries you did and you should have been dealt with sooner than this. If that had happened before your 18th birthday, this case would be in the youth court.’

Mr Robert Yates, prosecuting, said the victim and Smith were among a group of youths congregating in the park when Smith suggested they went to a shop nearby.

The boy was walking ahead of him in a narrow alleyway when he ran up and struck him a single blow which threw him against a wall and caused him to lose consciousness for a short time.”

Miss Nicola Colwill, defending, said Smith would have received a referral order at youth court if the case had been handled more efficiently rather than allowed to drag on for a year.

She said he believed the other boy had been bullying a friend of his. She said: ‘He meted out his own punishment. He saw himself as an avenging angel.’