Here we take a look at some of the criminals locked up during the first four months of the year.
All of the information below comes from either Sussex Police or our reporters attending court in person.
5. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between January and April
A teenager has been jailed for supplying crack cocaine and heroin in Brighton. Charlie Angel was sentenced to two years and six months’ imprisonment after he was identified as running the ‘Snupe’ County Drug Line in the area. Police were initially searching for a high risk missing person, who was suspected to have been exploited and involved in the supply of Class A substances. The 17-year-old was safely located along with two other children aged 16 and 17 at a flat in Peacehaven in August 2023, where class A drugs were found being prepared for distribution. A number of mobile phones were seized and examined, which linked all three people to Angel. The 19-year-old, of North Place, Brighton, was subsequently arrested at an address in Northampton on August 16 and found in possession of the drug line phone. Enquiries revealed he was in control of the drug line that was being used to facilitate the supply of Class A drugs. He was charged with being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin, which he admitted and was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on January 19 Photo: Sussex Police
6. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between January and April
A teenage boy who stabbed a woman in Hastings has been sentenced. Thomas Waeling, 18, confronted the victim who was not known to him in a car park in front of the Summerfields Leisure Centre in Bohemia Road. He stabbed her multiple times, including once through the chest, after he had earlier taken a knife from the kitchen of a friend's home. Waeling later claimed he had to carry out the assault 'to be taken seriously'. The local woman suffered a punctured lung and other wounds, and had to be airlifted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. He stood trial at Lewes Crown Court in November and was found guilty of attempted murder, and appeared for sentencing on January 26. Waeling, unemployed of Kenilworth Road, St Leonards, was sentenced to 13 years in custody, with an extended three years to be served on licence, taking the total sentence to 16 years. The sentence includes a nine month custodial sentence for possession of a knife in public, which will run concurrently. The court was told how the incident happened at about 7.45pm on May 15 last year. Waeling was angry after an argument with his father earlier in the afternoon. Waeling left a property wearing a black hooded top and covering his face. He later told a friend: "I'm going to stab someone, I'm in the mood. The first person I see I'm going to stab." Waeling approached the woman and stabbed her, then ran from the scene. The victim, who was walking home from a supermarket, described how she felt lucky to be alive, and grateful that members of the public and paramedics found her. She felt that Waeling had brandished the knife to intimidate her an was laughing during the assault. After the attack, Waeling abandoned the knife in a public toilet, changed his clothes, and asked a friend to burn the clothes he had been wearing. Officers launched an investigation and widespread searches, and Waeling was arrested in Ramsgate on June 1. Photo: Sussex Police
7. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between January and April
A construction worker from St Leonards who sexually abused a young girl has been jailed for more than 15 years. Darren Sibley, 40, of no fixed address, repeatedly sexually assaulted a child under the age of 13, police said. His attacks came to light when a friend of the victim reported the abuse to Sussex Police. Officers made contact with the victim and an investigation was launched while she was supported by specialist officers. Sibley was arrested and charged with five counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, two counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, one count of attempted sexual assault of a child under 13, as well as assaulting an emergency worker and failing to surrender, Sussex Police said. At Hove Crown Court on October 24 last year, Sibley was found guilty of three of the sexual offences. He pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and failing to surrender, police said. At Lewes Crown Court on January 8, Sibley was jailed for 15 years and three months, police said. He was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order; a restraining order relating to the victim and will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life. Photo: Sussex Police
8. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between January and April
A man has been jailed following an assault in Horsham. Police were called to reports of a disturbance at an address in Peary Close at around 6pm on January 30, 2023. Kristopher Everitt, 40, of no fixed address, entered the property without permission, before showing a resident his hands covered in blood. He then proceeded to rub it on his victim’s t-shirt and his face. Other residents of the property, who were known to him, intervened, and shouted at Everitt to leave, who eventually did. Upon exiting, he damaged a fence on Cook Road. Everitt pleaded guilty to both criminal damage and common assault, and was sentenced for 14 months’ imprisonment on January 22 when he appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court. Photo: Sussex Police