Hastings: Teen who stabbed stranger walking home from Lidl jailed

Thomas Waeling has been jailed for stabbing a stranger in Hastings last year

A teenager who stabbed a stranger walking home from a supermarket has been jailed.

Thomas Waeling attacked 50-year-old Sarah Taylor after she left Lidl in Hastings, East Sussex, on 15 May 2023.

Sentencing Waeling for attempted murder, Judge Christine Laing KC said it was "one of the most depressing cases I have had to deal with".

At Lewes Crown Court, the 18-year-old was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The court heard how Ms Taylor was saved by paramedics and members of the public after she was stabbed in the chest in Bohemia Road.

'Utter misfortune'

Judge Laing said Waeling, who was 17 at the time of the attack, had deliberately taken a knife to murder someone because he was in a "bad mood" after an argument with his father.

"You decided to take out your frustrations and your anger on a completely random stranger," she said.

"It was Ms Taylor's utter misfortune that she happened to leave Lidl just at that time and went in a direction that meant she left the main road and made herself a target for you simply to vent your frustration on."

Thomas Waeling stabbed Sarah Taylor after she left Lidl in Hastings in May last year

In a victim impact statement, Ms Taylor said she had been left with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and had suffered life-changing injuries.

Defending Waeling, Neil Fitzgibbon said the youth was "apologetic, remorseful and devastated".

Waeling, formerly of Kenilworth Road, St Leonards, was found guilty of attempted murder and was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment and three years on extended licence.

He was also handed a nine-month concurrent sentence for possessing a knife.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].