Turbulence is investigated in the lee of an open-cell metal foam layer. In contrast to canonical grids, metal foams are locally irregular but statistically isotropic. The solid matrix is characterised by two lengths, the ligament thickness $d_f$ and the pore diameter $d_p$. A direct numerical simulation is conducted on a realistic metal foam geometry for which $d_f/d_p = 0.14$ and the porous layer thickness is five times the pore diameter. The Reynolds number based on the pore size is ${\textit {Re}}_{d_p} = 4000$, corresponding to a Taylor-scale Reynolds number ${\textit {Re}}_\lambda \approx 80$. Closer to the foam than two pore diameters, the pressure and turbulent transports of turbulent kinetic energy are non-negligible. In the same region, ${\textit {Re}}_\lambda$ undergoes a steep decrease whereas the dissipation coefficient $C_{\epsilon }$ increases like ${\textit {Re}}_\lambda ^{-1}$. At larger distances from the porous layer, the classical grid turbulence situation is recovered, where the mean advection of turbulent kinetic energy equals dissipation. This entails a power-law decay of turbulent quantities and characteristic lengths. The decaying exponents of integral, Taylor and Kolmogorov scales are close to one-half, indicating that the turbulence simulated here differs from Saffman turbulence. Analysis of the scaling exponents of structure functions and the decorrelation length of dissipation reveals that small-scale fluctuations are weakly intermittent.