Pupil who carried out school hammer attack named

A schoolboy who attacked two students and a teacher with a hammer at a boarding school in Devon has been named after a judge lifted an order preventing his identification.

Thomas Wei Huang, 17, from Malaysia, was detained for life to serve a minimum term of 12 years after he tried to kill three people at Blundell's School in Tiverton.

He attacked two roommates, aged 15 and 16 at the time, as they slept during the early hours of 9 June 2023, leaving them with severe injuries.

The teenager, who claimed he was sleepwalking during the attack, was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court in October after being found guilty of three counts of attempted murder.

He also attacked housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester, who suffered six wounds to his head.

Huang can be identified after a High Court judge lifted an order preventing publication of his name.

A jury heard Huang, who was aged 16 at the time of the attack, used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

Sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice Cutts said: "You knew the difference between right and wrong and you intended to kill those boys."

The teenager, who admitted assaulting the two boys and the housemaster, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder by reason of insanity due to his sleepwalking.

The court also heard he had an "unhealthy interest in violence and violent films", and was struggling with a "cocktail of extreme stress" due to exam and personal life issues.

But the jury rejected the sleepwalking argument.

The two pupils were asleep in cabin-style beds in one of the co-educational school's boarding houses when Huang climbed up and attacked them shortly before 01:00.

Mr 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 where the attack had happened, he saw a silhouetted figure standing in the room, who then turned towards him and repeatedly struck him over the head with a hammer.

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

The court heard both were living with the "long-term consequences" of the attack but have no memory of it. One boy suffered permanent brain damage, the court heard.

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

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].