Snoring may have triggered hammer attack - expert

A 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with the attempted murder of three people

Snoring may have triggered a pupil to attack two sleeping students and a teacher with a hammer at a boarding school in Devon, a jury has heard.

An expert said for snoring to trigger sleepwalking "it would have to be loud", Exeter Crown Court heard.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with the attempted murder of the trio at Blundell's School in Tiverton last year.

The pupil, aged 16 at the time, denies the charges.

'Lash out violently'

Dr John O'Reilly, a consultant in respiratory and sleep medicine, gave evidence to the court on Tuesday.

The defendant said he had been sleepwalking when he attacked his fellow pupils and housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester with claw hammers.

Dr O'Reilly said the defendant told him both pupils he attacked "did snore but it did not bother him".

The court heard a loud noise could trigger sleepwalking.

However, Dr O'Reilly said there was no evidence a loud noise had triggered the defendant's sleepwalking on the evening in June 2023.

Dr O'Reilly also told the court sleepwalkers "do not seek out the victim without being touched, gripped or approached".

He said if the sleepwalker was approached then they would "lash out violently" in defensive aggression as they would perceive they are being attacked.

He said in those cases: "The victim is the trigger."

The sleep expert told the jury the two teenagers in the dorm were not in close proximity or touching distance of the defendant, and it was the defendant who climbed up onto their cabin bunk beds and attacked them with two hammers and a knife.

But he said sleepwalkers can pick up and carry weapons, and he added the defendant has shown no remorse "because he does not remember doing anything".

The defendant denies three charges of attempted murder and the trial continues.