A BOURNEMOUTH shopkeeper has trouble sleeping and refuses to be in his store alone after being viciously attacked with a metal bar.

Zeynel Altun needed six stitches to deep cuts in his head after Steven Robertson, 38, burst into his Northbourne convenience store demanding money, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.

Robertson, of Kinson Grove, repeatedly jabbed him in the stomach and beat him over the head with the bar, concealed in a bin liner.

More than four months after the incident at 4.15pm on July 8, the Hazel Supermarket owner told the Daily Echo: “I always have someone to stay with me now.

“Sometimes I have flashbacks and cannot sleep, so I get sleeping tablets from my doctor.

“I couldn’t see what was in the black bag and was really scared. It was big and really thick.”

The court heard how Mr Altun tried to run away. Then he picked up some tubing, holding it over his head in self-defence as he chased Robertson from his store.

“I’d only taken over the shop in March and never expected this to happen in daylight and on a busy main road,” he told the Echo after the case.

“When we got outside I had blood on my head. The hairdresser’s shop next door was full of customers watching. In the end he walked away, but slowly. He looked very calm.”

Faced with CCTV footage of his crime, Robertson pleaded guilty to robbery, wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

In court, Tim Bradbury, mitigating, said Robertson came up with the “amateur” plan to solve his money problems after taking Valium and drinking.

He said: “Robertson did not foresee that Mr Altun was to prove far more of a match for him than he expected, and was not going to allow his premises to be robbed in this manner.”

Sentencing Robertson to three years and nine months in prison, Judge Samuel Wiggs said: “This was by far the most serious offence which you have committed, although it is an extensive record.

“I have taken note of precisely what happened, having seen the recording and the violence which took place.”

Robertson had previous convictions for assaulting police officers, battery and common assault, the Crown Court was told.