Teen given eight years for town centre stabbing

A 17-year-old has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stabbing a man with a blow that "penetrated his heart" in an East Sussex town centre.

The teenager can now be named as Rhys Hedges, who turns 18 in three days' time, after reporting restrictions were lifted by the judge.

A jury at Lewes Crown Court previously cleared him of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter after he said he stabbed 20-year-old Billy Ripley in self-defence in Hailsham.

Officers were called to the Vicarage Field area at about 18:20 BST on 29 August 2024 to reports that a man had been stabbed following an altercation.

Mr Ripley was treated by paramedics but died at the scene from a single stab wound.

Her Honour Judge Christine Laing said the sentencing could not "begin to quantify the immeasurable loss and void" Hedges had left for those who loved Billy Ripley, and was not intended to.

She told Hedges: "It is to punish you for your actions on that day.

"Billy was also regularly carrying a knife.

"And knife is frankly an understatement, these were weapons of substantial size, machetes and zombie killer knives, fearsome weapons that will inevitably do dreadful damage if used against someone's body, even if that was not your intention.

"You could easily have got on your bike and cycled away if you were in fear of him as you claimed.

"Rather, you ensured you attracted his attention by at the very least standing in his view on the edge of the road or by calling to him.

"The two of you then both came together in the entrance to the graveyard to have a knife fight, plain and simple."

She added that there was no evidence that any more than one blow from his weapon struck Mr Ripley, but that blow had "penetrated his heart and caused him an un-survivable injury".

The judge said "something drastic" had to be done to stop young men from having these weapons and carrying them in public.

"No matter what your intention - or lack of one - when you use a blade of that size against someone, really serious harm or death is the almost inevitable outcome," she added.

During the trial the jury heard Mr Ripley had stabbed the boy twice in the arm, and the boy said he "moved back" and "tried to defend himself".

Erin Eade, the mother of Mr Ripley's daughter, said her former partner "was a great father".

She said since Mr Ripley's death their daughter had asked where her dad was.

"I said he was in the sky...she doesn't really understand what has happened," she explained.

"I do feel very sad that she will grow up without a dad. It will be hard to tell her about it when she is older."

Mr Ripley's mother, Tracey Puttick, said his death had "changed mine and my children's lives for ever" and that she cried every day.

She added: "Billy will never be replaced, he filled our lives with joy and it is a silent place without him.

"He will never be forgotten and I will miss him and love him every day."

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