Blundell's pupil was being blackmailed, court told

The defendant was aged 16 at the time of the attack

The teenage defendant in the Devon boarding school hammer attacks trial was being blackmailed, a jury has heard.

The boy, aged 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of attacking two sleeping roommates and his housemaster with a hammer at Blundell's School in Tiverton in June 2023.

He denies three charges of attempted murder and three alternative lesser charges of wounding three victims with intent.

Defence barrister Kerim Fuad KC told Exeter Crown Court the teenager was being blackmailed by a "thoroughly despicable person".

"This horrible and predatory person will never face justice," he said.

'Textbook sleepwalking'

Mr Faud said the actions of the ruthless, sophisticated predator caused upset and stress in the defendant's mind and such scams had seen children commit suicide.

"It was on his mind every second," he said.

The defence has previously accepted the teenager carried out the hammer attacks but claimed he was sleepwalking at the time.

In his closing speech to the jury Mr Fuad said the defendant was "textbook sleepwalking" at the time of the attacks.

He asked the jury whether the defendant "consciously wanted to kill three people or was he sleepwalking and just not conscious at the time?".

Mr Fuad told the court the defendant has autism but was assessed three times by a psychiatrist who said the teenager had "no current or past acute mental illness".

The barrister said the housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester was the only truly independent witness on the day and gave a vivid account.

Expressionless and wide eyed

He said in his evidence the housemaster did not think the defendant realised it was him he was attacking.

The housemaster said the defendant was expressionless and wide eyed and when he disarmed the pupil, he said the teenager suddenly stopped and was calm and "snapped out of it".

Mr Fuad said the defendant was an "intelligent boy" but denied there had been any planning of the hammer attacks.

The barrister said an expert said you can fall into a deep sleep within five or six minutes if sleep deprived and he carried out the hammer attacks within 60 to 120 seconds.

The defendant claimed he was sleepwalking and dreaming at the time of the attacks.

He said he had armed himself with weapons for protection against the zombie apocalypse.

Mr Fuad said the pupil was sleep deprived and stressed by exams and being blackmailed by a female over naked photos he had sent her.

The trial continues.