Thomas Wei Huang: Public schoolboy who attacked sleeping students with hammers named for first time
A public schoolboy who claimed he was sleepwalking when he attacked two students and a teacher with hammers can now be named.
It comes after a judge lifted an order preventing the identification of 17-year-old international student, Thomas Wei Huang.
Last week, he was detained for life with a minimum term of 12 years after he was found guilty of three charges of attempted murder in June following a 10-week trial.
Blundell’s school, Tiverton, Devon
Police at the school after the attack
Huang, who turns 18 in January, was dressed only in his boxer shorts when he repeatedly hit his dormmates as they slept in one of the boarding houses at the co-ed Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, in June last year.
Both boys suffered skull fractures, as well as injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding. He then attacked a teacher who attempted to intervene.
They had been asleep in cabin-style beds when Huang climbed up and attacked them shortly before 1am on 9 June last year.
Maths teacher Henry Roffe-Silvester told Exeter Crown Court he was asleep in his own quarters when he was awoken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate.
He said he saw a silhouetted figure standing in front of him in the room who then turned and repeatedly hit him over the head with a hammer.
“Physically I stumbled backwards into the corridor. There was a second blow – I can’t remember if it was before I stumbled back – that’s a little bit hazy for me,” said Mr Roffe-Silvester, who suffered six blows to the head.
Another student heard Mr Roffe-Silvester shouting and swearing as he fled the bedroom and dialled 999 – believing there was an intruder.
The two boys were discovered in their beds a few minutes later.
Blundell’s School, Tiverton, Devon. Pic: PA
Huang, from Malaysia, who was 16 at the time, admitted carrying out the attacks but said he was sleepwalking. He denied three charges of attempted murder on the basis he was not guilty by reason of insanity.
But the court was told he had an obsession with the killing of children and hammers, which he said he kept by his bed for “protection” from the “zombie apocalypse”.
Prosecutors said the boy armed himself with three claw hammers and waited for the two boys to be asleep before attacking them.
At his sentencing hearing last month, judge Mrs Justice Cutts said experts could not say how long he would pose a risk to the public as she jailed him for life with a minimum term of 12 years.
“You planned your offences and used hammers you had bought as weapons,” she told Huang, adding that, as an “intelligent boy”, he “knew full well if you hit the boys multiple times with the hammers they would die”.
She told him there was a significant risk he could repeat his attack and therefore he posed “a high level of danger to the public because of the nature of your offences”.
In evidence, Huang told the jury he wanted to come to England to study in a boarding school and was “excited” to do so.
Asked if he was happy at the school, he replied: “Yes I was. I liked my friends, my teachers and the academic aspect of it. I didn’t like the sports and the food at the school.”
He described life at the boarding school, including pupils sharing takeaways and tubs of sweets.
The court heard Huang’s brother, who is two years older than him, also went to Blundell’s.
Huang can be named after a court official confirmed his lawyers would not be appealing the judge’s earlier decision to lift the reporting restriction, which was made at the sentencing hearing following an application by the PA news agency.
Controversial reforms to inheritance tax are the “single biggest issue” facing farmers, according to a long-awaited report into the profitability of the sector.
The Farming Profitability Review – authored by Baroness Minette Batters, former head of the National Farmers’ Union – says the industry is “bewildered and frightened” of what might lie ahead.
The publication of the government-commissioned review had been delayed, with some claiming it was shelved till after the chancellor’s budget last month, to avoid scrutiny.
The report makes 57 recommendations on how the government can improve profitability – with Baroness Batters saying farmers are facing “huge economic challenges”.
Baroness Minette Batters
But it stops short of offering alternative proposals to inheritance tax reforms (IHT), with Baroness Batters saying that was outside the terms of reference set.
The changes – due to come into force next April – will see farms with assets of more than £1m pay 20% tax. Previously farms had been exempt.
The reforms have led to thousands of farmers protesting in London over the last year, with many saying the IHT payments will make many smaller farms no longer viable.
“Nearly all the responses to this review have cited inheritance tax as the single biggest issue regarding farming viability that they face. The farming sector is bewildered and frightened of what might lie ahead,” said Baroness Batters.
She added that the “core focus” of her recommendations is to “restore balance between food production and the environment”.
The report highlights the threats of climate change to farming, which accounts for 70% of UK total land.
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Recommendations also include growing ‘Brand Britain’ through increased exports and supermarket sales – and ensuring better monitoring of supply chain fairness.
Reacting to the report, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs announced a new board to bring together senior leaders from farming, food production, retail, finance and government to strengthen UK food production.
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds. Pic: PA
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “When farming thrives, the whole country benefits. British farmers are central to our food security, our rural economy and the stewardship of our countryside.
“Baroness Batters’ review underlines the need for government, farming and the food industry to work much more closely together. That is exactly what the new Farming and Food Partnership Board will do.”
Baroness Minette Batters said: “I’m pleased that the Secretary of State recognises the need to establish a new approach to growing the British brand at home and abroad by producing, creating and selling more from our farms in a measurable way.
“With ever more extreme weather, the horrific, ongoing war in Ukraine and 69.7 million people in the UK now is the time to deliver food security as national security.”
The government will set out its full response in a new 25-year Farming Roadmap, due for publication next year.
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