Jury retires in schoolboy hammer attack trial

Two fellow students were left with severe injuries while the housemaster suffered wounds to his head

The jury in the trial of a Devon private school boy who attacked two sleeping roommates and a housemaster has retired to consider its verdict.

The defendant, 17, is alleged to have attacked the victims with a hammer but he denies three counts of attempted murder and three alternative charges of wounding with intent.

The attacks happened in the early hours of 9 June last year at Blundell's School in Tiverton.

The two roommates, aged 15 and 16 at the time, were left with severe injuries and the housemaster Henry Roffe Silvester suffered six wounds to his head.

The defendant told Exeter Crown Court he was sleepwalking and dreaming at the time of the attacks.

He claimed he had the hammer for protection against a "zombie apocalypse".

Throughout the eight-week trial, the jury has also heard from pupils, teachers, the police, a consultant forensic pathologist, paramedics, sleep experts and the defendant's mother.

On Monday, the judge Mrs Justice Cutts finished summarising the evidence for the jury and told them not to "feel the pressure of time" as they reached their decision.

The trial continues.