Hammer-wielding public schoolboy who attacked two sleeping students and a teacher named
1 November 2024, 13:15
A public schoolboy who attacked two sleeping students and a teacher with hammers at a boarding school has been named.
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Thomas Wei Huang, 17, was publicly identified after a High Court judge lifted an order preventing his naming.
Huang, who is from Malaysia, was jailed for life last month after being convicted of three counts of attempted murder following the incident at Blundell's School in Devon last year.
The boy, who was 16 at the time, was wearing just his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.
He admitted assaulting the two boys and the housemaster at the school, saying he was not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity because of sleepwalking.
However, the jury rejected this and found him guilty at Exeter Crown Court of three counts of attempted murder.
At his sentencing last month, Mrs Justice Cutts said experts were unable to say how long the defendant would pose a risk to the public .
She 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."
Mrs Justice Cutts lifted the reporting restriction preventing the teenager being identified at the hearing.
But lawyers representing Huang indicated they wished to appeal and Mrs Justice Cutts ordered a stay on her ruling.
A court official later confirmed no appeal would be made and the judge lifted the stay.
Huang had armed himself with three claw hammers and waited for the two boys to be asleep before attacking them in June last year.
The two pupils had been sleeping in cabin-style beds in one of the co-ed school's boarding houses when he climbed up and attacked them shortly before 1am.
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 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.
Another student heard the housemaster 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 suffered skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.
Both boys are living with the "long-term consequences" of the attack but have no memory of the incident, the court heard.
One boy suffered permanent brain damage.
Mr Roffe-Silvester received six blows to his head but made a full recovery.
