Schoolboy ‘tried to beat sleeping students to death with a hammer’, court told

A public schoolboy was “on a mission” to protect himself from a “zombie apocalypse” when he tried to kill two sleeping students by attacking them with a claw hammer, a court has been told.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is also accused of repeatedly striking a teacher in the skull with a hammer after attacking the boys at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon.

The teenager was 16 when the attacks took place and claims he was sleepwalking at the time.

The schoolboy was wearing just his boxer shorts and had armed himself with four claw hammers and waited for the boys to fall asleep before allegedly attacking them, Exeter Crown Court heard.

James Dawes KC, prosecuting, said the two boys were in cabin-style beds in one of the mixed school’s boarding houses when the defendant climbed up and hit them with at least one hammer shortly before 1am on 9 June last year.

“The defendant was awake, and he decided to put into action a plan that he had been fermenting in his head for some time,” Mr Dawes said.

“And that plan was to kill the two boys, and he decided to do it whilst they slept in their own beds, and he decided to do it with a hammer.

‘He smashed a hammer into their heads as they slept’

Mr Dawes added: “The defendant was in possession of four claw hammers – a heavy hammer with a flat striking side and two-pronged claw at the back.

“He had four of them and he selected more than one hammer and he quietly climbed up into the top of the first cabin bed.

“The boys are asleep, and they had both had their heads on pillows, and then he smashed a hammer or hammers into their heads as they slept, multiple times.

“He also hit arms and backs. He didn’t just use the flat end of the hammer – he used the claw end as well to strike these boys.

“These blows smashed their skulls.”

Henry Roffe-Silvester, a teacher who was asleep in his own quarters, was awoken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate, the court heard.

When he entered the bedroom where the attack had happened, he saw a silhouetted figure standing in the room who turned towards him and repeatedly struck him over the head with a hammer.

Another student heard Mr Roffe-Silvester’s shouts and swearing as he fled the bedroom and dialled 999 – believing there was an intruder.

“Mr Roffe-Silvester retreated down the corridor, with the defendant attacking him again and again with the hammer around his face and head,” Mr Dawes said.

“He was shouting at the defendant to stop. In total there were six impacts to his head.

“He said the defendant was expressionless, he was neutral and unsettling in his expression and appearance.

“Mr Roffe-Silvester said he thought the defendant appeared to be ‘on a mission’ and afterwards his face and body relaxed, and he was calm and slumped on his feet, squatting against the wall.”

Another student was told to “keep an eye” on the defendant in the matron’s office, Mr Dawes said.

“The defendant told him he was feeling quite stressed about things before the incident with school tests and owed some money to a girl,” he said.

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Mr Dawes said the defendant told the student he had fallen asleep after watching a movie and then carried out the attack.

The prosecutor suggested this was a lie because there was evidence that the boy was using his iPad until moments before the alleged assaults.

“The student tried to calm the defendant down and asked him again what had happened, and the defendant said to the student he was watching horror movies and he had weapons to prepare for the zombie apocalypse and to protect himself,” Mr Dawes said.

One student heard the defendant say: “I am sorry, I was dreaming.”

And another told police the teenager said: “I am going to prison, I was sleepwalking.”

‘It was like a scene from a horror film’

Paramedics who arrived at the school described the scene they found, with one saying the bedroom was “the worst scene he had ever encountered in 20 years in emergency care”.

A colleague said: “I have served in Iraq and had never seen such a scene of carnage, with blood over the desks, over the walls and the beds.”

Another said: “It was like a scene from a horror film. The boys were making a deal of noise and it was clear to him they were fighting for their lives.”

The defendant denies three charges of attempted murder.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.