THE foster family of a teenager stabbed to death earlier this week have paid tribute to their “angel”.

Ollie Wells was attacked in Newhaven on Monday. The 18-year-old was found with serious injuries in Ship Street and died at the scene.

From 2017, he had lived with his foster family in Shinewater, Eastbourne.

Ollie’s foster mother Anita Haselhurst, 42, said the family has been left “devastated”.

She said: “I still sit by the phone waiting for him to call.

“I keep thinking he’s going to ring and say ‘it wasn’t me, I don’t know what everyone’s talking about’.

“We miss him so much.

“He was always happy, laughing and joking with us.

“It was like he was my own son.”

Ollie’s foster sister Nataya Ripley, 16, said: “He was so funny and he’d do anything for anyone. He was always laughing and always cheerful.

“He was always there if anyone needed him. Just being around him made everyone smile.

“”He spent a lot of his life in foster care and he didn’t have the greatest upbringing, but that never stopped him being happy. It’s been awful since his death.

“Things keep going round and round in my head.

“I can’t shut my eyes without seeing his face. We all just feel lost.

“He was loved by everybody. But he was a little rascal too. He used to love annoying people and playing pranks.”

Nataya remembers Ollie pinching the elf slippers she got for Christmas and “jumping around the front room and stretching them out with his big feet”.

“He was always leaping around and excited,” she said. “He was very enthusiastic. He acted like every day was his birthday.”

Chloe Ripley, 22, described her foster brother as an “angel”. Her brother Leon Ripley, 19, said Ollie was “kind, funny, quiet and gentle”.

“He was one of my best mates,” he said. “I spent my first summer in Eastbourne with him.

“We played cricket, went up to the woods and swung on rope swings and I remember he even crashed a car once.

“He was always happy, laughing and joking around with us.

“I’m going to miss him.”

A 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in the dock at Brighton Magistrates’ Court charged with Ollie’s murder on Wednesday.

Ollie’s family are holding a private funeral and his foster family are arranging a service so Ollie’s friends can remember him.

They have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money towards it. People can donate at www.gofundme.com.