School hammer attack: Boy 'may have been sleepwalking'

The accused teenager had fallen out with one of the young victims, the court heard

A teenager who attacked two students and a teacher with hammers at a Devon boarding school may have been sleepwalking, a court has heard.

The pupil from Blundell's boarding school in Tiverton, Devon, used hammers in the attacks in June 2023, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The 17-year-old denies three counts of attempted murder.

Both students were left with life-changing injuries, the jury has heard. The trial continues.

'Consumed' by sleepwalking episode

The jury has been told the boy caused the injuries during the attack at Blundell's School in Tiverton - but his defence is that he was asleep when he did so.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons and was 16 at the time, launched the attacks at the private school shortly before 01:00 BST on 9 June 2023, the court heard.

James Dawes KC, prosecuting, told the jury they could be sure the boy intended to kill the three victims and "rained down blows" on his sleeping dorm-mates.

In his opening statement on behalf of the defence, Kerim Fuad KC said his client did not deny wielding the hammer or causing the injuries, but had no intention of carrying out the attacks.

'Horror film way'

He said: "He was only 16 years old at the time. The defence case is that the other two boys were his friends and dorm-mates and he had no reason or intention to kill them, so why?

"The defence case is that he can only have been consumed in an episode of sleepwalking to have carried out these extraordinary acts."

He added: "It is not in issue that he took a hammer or hammers to the other boys and Mr Roffe-Silvester, and not an issue that he caused these awful, awful injuries.

"Nothing can diminish that and we do not at any stage seek to minimise the horror of the incident or what those boarders went through.

"What is in issue is what caused him to smash their heads in such a horror film way. Was he awake and intended to kill them, or may he have been sleepwalking and therefore not functioning?"

The attacks took place at the private school shortly before 01:00 BST on 9 June 2023

Mr Fuad said the jury would hear about the science of sleep walking from experts.

He said the boy was also under stress because he was being blackmailed by an internet fraudster who demanded £400 three days before the attacks.

Jurors were played a recording of a police interview carried out with one of the victims two months after the attack.

The court heard he had been a close friend of the defendant until an incident the previous September - in which he accused him falsely of laughing at him in class.

The boy said the defendant then tried to disrupt his work by stapling his homework to his desk and by smashing his property with hammers.

He said his last memory of the night of the attack was brushing his teeth before bed, the court heard.