Public schoolboy guilty of trying to kill sleeping students and teacher with hammers
The 16-year-old claimed he was 'on a mission' to protect himself from a zombie apocalypse.
A hammer-wielding public schoolboy who attacked two students as they slept and then a teacher has been found guilty of attempted murder.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, carried out the savage attack at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, in June last year.
He was found guilty at Exeter Crown Court today.
During a two-month trial, the court heard how the boy – wearing just his boxer shorts – was allegedly ‘on a mission’ to protect himself from a zombie apocalypse when he went into a frenzy.
He admitted to assault against the two boys and housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester but claimed he was sleepwalking at the time, meaning he could not be found guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.
Jurors heard how the teenager 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 June 9, 2023.
Mr Roffe-Silvester, who was asleep in his own quarters, was awoken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate.
When he entered the bedroom, he saw a silhouetted figure standing in the room, who then turned towards him and repeatedly struck him over the head six times 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 both suffered skull fractures, as well as injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.
Following the terrifying attack, both are living with the ‘long-term consequences’ but have no memory of the incident.
After deliberating for some 40 hours, the jury found the pupil guilty of three counts of attempted murder.
During the trial, James Dawes KC, prosecuting, said: ‘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.
‘He had motive, that he had planned something like this, thought about it in advance, and he was awake.
‘He was using his iPad right up to the moment before the attack.’
However, expert Dr Mark Pressman insisted the boy would have been sleepwalking and described the attack on Mr Roffe-Silvester as a ‘textbook example of sleepwalking violence’.
He told the jury he must have also been asleep during the attacks on the two boys because there was not enough time to fall into a deep sleep between the incidents.
Relatives of the defendant also told the court about a history of sleepwalking in their family.
The boy told jurors he remembered going to sleep before the attack and then seeing the dormitory covered in blood.
‘I knew something really bad had gone on and everyone was looking towards me,’ he said.
‘I didn’t remember doing anything so the only rational thing I was thinking was that I was sleepwalking.’
He 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.
‘I feel very sorry for everyone, the families and themselves.’
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