Passengers blinded by madman Waheed Foster recall in their statement read out at the verdict how the random attack “changed” their lives

The passenger who was brutally trampled by a deranged hobo in a Queens subway station says she is still so traumatized by the unprovoked attack that she could not bear to face the thug in court on Monday.

“Standing in court today would have brought back so much pain, tears and bad memories, the kind of pain and memories I try to forget,” Elizabeth Gomes wrote in a statement read at Waheed Foster’s sentencing.

Gomes said she could not forget the nightmare, “because every time I look in the mirror, I remember it.”

“I am very grateful to be alive and truly grateful that Mr. Foster will be put away for a while, even if it does not give me back my sight,” the statement said.

Foster, who still faces a murder charge in the Bronx for allegedly strangling her girlfriend, was sentenced to 22 years in prison as part of a plea deal in connection with the violent attack at the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station on September 20, 2022, which was captured on video and cost her the sight in her right eye.

Foster has an extensive mental health history and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“In this case, the defendant was in and out of the hospital,” Judge Ira Margulis said during the hearing in Queens Supreme Court.

“He shouldn’t have been on the streets,” the judge said. “He should have been in a psychiatric hospital, a state hospital, where he would be treated. Because he showed time and time again that after he was released and stopped taking his medication, he continued to commit crimes.”

Gomes, who works in security at Kennedy International Airport, was on her way to work when she was attacked.

Foster already had a long criminal record of violent crimes, including beating his 82-year-old grandmother during a dispute over money when he was 14, law enforcement sources said.

In 2010, he stabbed a woman in the face in a mental institution, and in April last year he was charged with strangling his ex-girlfriend in the Bronx on August 6, 2022.

He remains detained at Rikers Island in this case without bail and is due back in court on July 24.

Gomes, meanwhile, said she will carry the scars of this attack for the rest of her life.

“People ask me what’s wrong with my eyes,” she said in her statement. “Sometimes little kids think I’m clairvoyant. I try to overcome all the negative comments and be strong, especially for myself and my kids and other women out there.”