Public schoolboy, 17, who attacked two sleeping students and teacher with hammer named

The boy was arrested in June last year after the two pupils sustained "multiple serious injuries" at Blundell's School, pictured here
PA
Susanna Siddell

By Susanna Siddell


Published: 01/11/2024

- 12:36

Updated: 01/11/2024

- 16:04

The judge has now lifted reporting restrictions on the attacker's identity

Thomas Wei Huang, 17, has been named as the brutal attacker of two sleeping students and a teacher in a Devon public school after the judge lifted reporting restrictions on the defendant's identity.

The teen - who carried out his crimes with hammers - was jailed for life last month.


After the two students sustained "multiple serious injuries" at Blundell's School in Devon, Huang faces a minimum term of 12 years behind bars for attempted murder.

Last year, Devon and Cornwall Police responded to reports of a serious assault in the early morning of June 9.

Blundell's School

Devon and Cornwall Police responded to reports of a serious assault in the early morning of June 9 2023

BLUNDELL'S SCHOOL

Huang used weapons - which he had obtained so that he could prepare for a zombie apocalypse - to assault his schoolmates and housemaster, Exeter Crown Court heard.

The student admitted to assaulting the three victims, claiming that he was sleepwalking.

To execute the attack, Huang acquired three claw hammers and waited for the two schoolboys to fall asleep.

The students were sleeping in cabin-style beds in one of the school's boarding houses when the then-16-year-old got up and attacked them shortly before 1am on June 9 last year.

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Housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester was startled awake by sounds from the house and, subsequently, went to investigate the source of the commotion.

When he entered the scene, he saw a silhouetted figure who, then, repeatedly hit him over the head with his weapon, as another student called emergency services after they believed there was an intruder.

The two victims of the attack sustained serious injuries, including skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleen, as well as a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

Now, both victims must live with the "long-term consequences" from the brutal attack, although they do not remember the incident, with one of the boys suffering from permanent brain damage.

Exeter Crown Court sign

The boy was found guilty of attempted murder at Exeter Crown Court

PA


At his sentencing a few weeks ago, Justice Cutts said that experts could not identify how long the defendant poses a risk to the public, although she said he posed a "significant risk" of repeating a similar attack.

She said: “You planned your offences and used hammers you had bought as weapons.

“You knew full well if you hit the boys multiple times with the hammers they would die."

Describing the boy as "intelligent", she said that he knew the difference between right and wrong.

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