MR PAUL Morris tells people that the six-inch circular scar above his right eye was caused by a bottle. He said if he tells people the real reason - it was caused by a plastic bullet - they will "get the wrong impression".
"When I'm going out somewhere and I'm wearing a shirt and tie and suit, I always look like a rough character, " said the heavy goods vehicle driver from west Belfast. "It gives you a real complex about yourself."
It was almost a year ago - July 13th, 1996 - that Mr Morris (24) was shot from a distance of 25 yards by an RUC officer outside New Barnsley police station in west Belfast.
He had, he said, been out drinking with friends and was walking his girlfriend home at about 12.30 a.m. when, as they were opposite the station, a police officer shouted at him.
"I turned around and as I looked over he just shot me in the face ... It was just one big massive thump and all I saw was a big white flash. All I remember was an ambulance coming, and getting into it. The blood was pouring all over the place because the bullet had peeled back the skin ... I thought I was dying"
There had, he said, been a crowd standing drinking on the street near him and minor trouble had flared earlier in the evening when youths set fire to a pile of rubbish. The disturbances were related to the annual Twelfth parades.
"There was definitely nothing happening when I arrived," he said. "I wasn't even dressed like your typical rioter."
Mr Morris received 14 stitches. He was arrested in hospital the following afternoon and questioned at Grosvenor Road police station for seven hours. He said the RUC claimed he had been rioting and throwing petrol bombs. These charges were subsequently dropped, he said.
He has made a complaint to the RUC and is also pursuing a civil damages claim. "I want the policeman put out of the RUC because if he is walking around shooting me in the head, his intention is to kill."
Mr Morris said the vision in his right eye has worsened and he has been to a psychiatrist following flashbacks.