A TEENAGER who threw a bottle of cola at a cyclist from a moving vehicle has been jailed for 12 months.

The cyclist was travelling at around 20mph when 18-year-old Sonny Hannah knocked him off his bike causing him to fly over the handlebars, breaking his elbow and wrist on the busy Lavernock Road between Sully and Penarth.

Hannah, of Laleston Close, Barry, had initially denied the offence of GBH but changed his plea to guilty after his DNA was found on the bottle.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Hannah, who appeared via video link from a Youth Offenders Institution where he is currently serving 14 months for supplying heroin, was a young man with a history of "wanton violence" against strangers.

On the evening of Friday, June 13 2014 Hannah was travelling as a passenger in a car with three other people between Sully and Penarth. The car was spotted by pedestrians being driven erratically with loud music blaring.

Hannah, now 19, had already been spotted throwing items out of the car at pedestrians - hitting one woman who was standing at a bus stop - when he decided to launch a bottle of Coke over the top of the car, to the other side of the road where John Mihell was cycling.

The bottle struck the front wheel of Mr Mihell's bicycle sending him sprawling across the busy road. He suffered a fractured elbow and wrist, as well as multiple bruises, scrapes and grazes. The court heard how in injuries greatly affected Mr Mihell and his family in the following weeks and months, limiting his ability to carry out day to day tasks.

When police traced the owner of the car and eventually Hannah he initially tried to blame someone who had no involvement in the incident before DNA evidence uncovered his lie.

Hannah pleaded guilty to an offence of GBH. At his sentencing the court heard how Hannah has seven convictions including ABH and affray with an offensive weapon.

In 2012 he was convicted of a drunken attack involving other intoxicated youths, where they assaulted a stranger with a metal bar and a baseball bat.

The court also heard that Hannah is currently serving a 14 months sentence for supplying heroin.

Calling the Coke bottle incident an act of "gross stupidity" Adam Sharpe, defending Hannah, asked Recorder Ian Murphy QC for leniency in his sentencing, explaining how Hannah is already set to miss out on the birth of his child in April.

Mr Murphy said that rather than simply an act of stupidity the incident was another example of Hannah committing violence against a stranger.

"This was another act of wanton violence, more than gross stupidity," he said.

"It was committed for your amusement and that of your friends."

He sentenced to Hannah to a further 12 months imprisonment and ordered he pay a £100 victim surcharge.