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| Pupil who carried out school hammer attack named | Pupil who carried out school hammer attack named |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| An order preventing his identification was lifted by a judge | An order preventing his identification was lifted by a judge |
| A schoolboy who attacked two students and a teacher with a hammer at a boarding school in Devon has been named after a judge lifted an order preventing his identification. | |
| Thomas Wei Huang, 17, from Malaysia, was detained for life to serve a minimum term of 12 years after he tried to kill three people at Blundell's School in Tiverton. | |
| He attacked two roommates, aged 15 and 16 at the time, as they slept during the early hours of 9 June 2023, leaving them with severe injuries. | He attacked two roommates, aged 15 and 16 at the time, as they slept during the early hours of 9 June 2023, leaving them with severe injuries. |
| He also attacked housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester, who suffered six wounds to his head. | He also attacked housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester, who suffered six wounds to his head. |
| The court heard Huang had an "unhealthy interest in violence and violent films" | |
| The teenager, who claimed he was sleepwalking during the attack, was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court in October after being found guilty of three counts of attempted murder. | The teenager, who claimed he was sleepwalking during the attack, was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court in October after being found guilty of three counts of attempted murder. |
| Huang can be identified after a High Court judge lifted an order preventing publication of his name. | |
| A jury heard Huang, who was aged 16 at the time of the attack, used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. | |
| Sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice Cutts said: "You knew the difference between right and wrong and you intended to kill those boys." | Sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice Cutts said: "You knew the difference between right and wrong and you intended to kill those boys." |
| 'Extreme stress' | |
| The teenager, who admitted assaulting the two boys and the housemaster, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder by reason of insanity due to his sleepwalking. | |
| The court also heard he had an "unhealthy interest in violence and violent films", and was struggling with a "cocktail of extreme stress" due to exam and personal life issues. | |
| But the jury rejected the sleepwalking argument. | |
| The two pupils were asleep in cabin-style beds in one of the co-educational school's boarding houses when Huang climbed up and attacked them shortly before 01:00. | |
| Mr Roffe-Silvester, who was asleep in his own quarters, was woken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate. | |
| Severe injuries | |
| When he entered the bedroom where the attack had happened, he saw a silhouetted figure standing in the room, who then turned towards him and repeatedly struck him over the head with a hammer. | |
| The two boys were discovered in their beds a few minutes later and had suffered skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding. | |
| The court heard both were living with the "long-term consequences" of the attack but have no memory of it. One boy suffered permanent brain damage, the court heard. | |
| Mr Roffe-Silvester, who received six blows to his head, made a full recovery. | |
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