Private school student who claimed to sleepwalk during hammer attacks guilty of attempted murder | UK news

The 17-year-old repeatedly hit his two sleeping roommates and his caretaker at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon.

A private school student who claimed he was sleepwalking when he attacked two students and a teacher with hammers has been found guilty of attempted murder of them.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was wearing only boxer shorts as he repeatedly punched his roommates in their hut beds at one of Blundell’s School’s boarding houses in Tiverton. Devonin June last year.

Both boys suffered skull fractures, rib and spleen injuries, a ruptured lung and internal bleeding. A prosecutor said the two were “lucky to be alive.”

Mathematics teacher Henry Roffe-Silvester was sleeping in his quarters when he was awakened by noises coming from the boarding school and went to investigate.

He told the jury that he saw the silhouette of a figure standing in front of him in the room, which then turned around and repeatedly hit him on the head with a hammer.

“Physically, I stumbled backwards into the corridor. There was a second blow – I can’t remember if it was before I stumbled back – that’s a bit unclear to me,” said Mr Roffe-Silvester, who suffered six blows to the head.

The teenager, then 16, admitted carrying out the attacks but said he was sleepwalking. He denied three charges of attempted murder, claiming not guilty by reason of insanity.

However, the court was told that he had an obsession with killing children and hammers, which he said he kept next to his bed, “Protection” from the “zombie apocalypse”.

Prosecutors said the boy armed himself with three claw hammers and waited until the two boys fell asleep before attacking them.

He was found guilty of three counts of attempted murder on Friday after jurors deliberated for more than 40 hours following a two-month trial. Exeter Crown Court. The trial judge, Mrs Justice Cutts, adjourned sentencing until 18 October.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) senior prosecutor Helen Phillips said: “This was a horrific attack on two defenceless boys who were asleep in their beds and lucky to be alive.”

“The student’s urge for violence then led him to turn his attention to the janitor, who was hit with a hammer but bravely intervened and stopped him.

“The boy, who had a macabre interest in murder, serial killers and violence, showed no remorse and naively believed he could avoid punishment by making up a story about sleepwalking at the time of the attack.”

The court was told the teenager had a history of sleepwalking and told jurors his mother found him at the bottom of a staircase in their home about ten years ago.

He said he could not remember the attacks, but could remember falling asleep on the evening of June 8.

“I remember being in the room,” he said. “The room was covered in blood. All I could see was blood. I didn’t hear anything.”

“I remember walking out into the hallway.”

He added: “I knew something really bad had happened and everyone was looking at me.

“I couldn’t remember anything, so my only rational thought was that I was sleepwalking.”

The boy said he had not intended to kill Mr Roffe-Silvester or the two boys, adding: “I feel terribly sorry for all three of them for what I did to them. I feel very sorry for all of them, for their families and for themselves.”

Prosecutor James Dawes KC told the jury that an examination of the teenager’s iPad revealed that he had been listening to music on Spotify shortly before the attacks.

He said police investigations had uncovered “an obsession” he had with one of the boys, as well as “an obsession with hammers as weapons and an obsession with killing and murderers and killing children.” He also had a screwdriver and a Swiss Army knife in his room.

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“It may not be palatable and it may not be particularly logical, but it seems to be an obsession that he was pursuing,” Mr Dawes said.

“These are deliberate acts and he rained blows with heavy hammers on their unprotected sleeping heads.

“He used both sides of the hammer, including the sharp claw.

“He had also bought these hammers in advance – a decision he had made months before this attack.

“These violent acts were repeated again and again.”