Hammer-wielding public schoolboy who attacked fellow students as they slept named by judge

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A public schoolboy handed a life sentence for attacking two sleeping students and a teacher with claw hammers, while they slept at a Devon boarding school, has been named.

A judge lifted reporting restrictions protecting the identity of 17-year-old Thomas Wei Huang on Friday.

The teenager admitted to assaulting the two boys and the housemaster at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, insisting he was not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity because he was sleepwalking. The then 16-year-old was wearing just his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

But the jury rejected this and found him guilty at Exeter Crown Court of three counts of attempted murder earlier this month.

Trial judge Ms Justice Cutts said experts were unable to say how long the defendant would pose a risk to the public and imposed a sentence of detention for life with a minimum term of 12 years.

“You planned your offences and used hammers you had bought as weapons,” she said.

“You knew full well if you hit the boys multiple times with the hammers they would die. You are an intelligent boy and I am satisfied you knew the difference between right and wrong.

“In my view, there remains a significant risk that you could behave in this way again. I consider that you pose a high level of danger to the public because of the nature of your offences.”

The judge lifted the reporting restriction preventing the teenager from being identified at the sentencing hearing, but ordered a stay on her ruling after lawyers for Huang, from Malaysia, indicated they wished to appeal.

However, court officials confirmed on Friday no appeal will be made and the judge has lifted the stay allowing him to be publicly identified for the first time.

The youth had armed himself with three claw hammers and waited for the two boys to be asleep before attacking them.

The two pupils were asleep in cabin-style beds in one of the co-ed school’s boarding houses when the defendant climbed up and attacked them shortly before 1am on 9 June last year.

Housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester, who was asleep in his own quarters, was woken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate.

When he entered the bedroom, he saw a silhouetted figure who then turned towards him and repeatedly struck him over the head with a hammer.

Another student heard Mr Roffe-Silvester shouting and swearing as he fled the bedroom and dialled 999 – believing there was an intruder.

The two boys were discovered in their beds a few minutes later. They had suffered skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

The court heard both are living with the “long-term consequences” of the attack but have no memory of the incident. One boy suffered permanent brain damage.

Mr Roffe-Silvester received six blows to his head but made a full recovery.

During the trial, James Dawes KC, prosecuting, told jurors: “The investigation has uncovered an obsession that the defendant had with one of the boys, an obsession with hammers as weapons, and an obsession with killing and killers and the killing of children.”

But one expert told the jury the boy would have been sleepwalking. Dr Mark Pressman described the attack on Mr Roffe-Silvester as “a textbook example of sleepwalking violence”.

Giving evidence, the boy said he kept two hammers by his bed “for protection” from the “zombie apocalypse”.

The boy added: “I feel very terribly sorry for all three individuals because of what I did to them.”

Kerim Fuad KC, defending, described the incident as a “tragic and extraordinary case” and said the boy has since been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

He said the teenager was struggling with a combination of difficulties, including exams, issues in his personal life and an “unhealthy interest in violence and violent films”.

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