Teenager who carried out a hammer attack at school, mentioned for the first time

A public schoolboy who attacked two sleeping students and a teacher with hammers at a boarding school can now be identified as 17-year-old Thomas Wei Huang.

He was publicly identified after a High Court judge lifted an order banning his naming following a request from the PA news agency.

Huang, originally from Malaysia, was jailed for life last month after being convicted of three attempted murders following the incident at Blundell’s School in Devon last year.

The teenager, who was 16 years old at the time, wore only his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

The teenager admitted attacking the two boys and the housemaster at Blundell’s School in Tiverton and said he was not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity as a result of sleepwalking.

But the jury rejected this and found him guilty of three attempted murders at Exeter Crown Court.

At his sentencing hearing last month, judge Mrs Justice Cutts said experts could not say how long the defendant would pose a risk to the public and imposed a life sentence with a minimum term of 12 years.

“You planned your offenses and used hammers you bought as weapons,” she said.

‘You knew very well that if you hit the boys several times with the hammers they would die.

‘You are an intelligent boy and I am convinced that you knew the difference between right and wrong.

“In my view, there remains a significant risk that you will behave in this way again. I believe that you pose a grave danger to the public due to the nature of your offending.”

Huang had armed himself with three claw hammers and waited until the two boys were asleep before attacking them.

The two students were sleeping in log cabin-style beds in one of the co-ed school’s boarding houses when Huang climbed up and attacked them shortly before 1am on June 9 last year.

Housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester, who was sleeping in his own room, was awakened by noises from the boarding house and went to investigate.

When he entered the bedroom where the attack had taken place, he saw a silhouette standing in the room, who then turned towards him and hit him repeatedly in the head with a hammer.

Another student heard Mr Roffe-Silvester shouting and swearing as he fled the bedroom and dialed 999 – believing there was an intruder.

A few minutes later the two boys were discovered in their bed.

They had suffered skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleens, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

The court heard that both are living with the “long-term consequences” of the attack but have no memory of the incident. One boy suffered permanent brain damage.

Mr Roffe-Silvester suffered six blows to the head but made a full recovery.

During the sentencing hearing, Mrs Justice Cutts lifted the reporting restriction, which prevented the teenager from being identified.

But lawyers representing Huang indicated they intended to appeal and Mrs Justice Cutts ordered a stay of her ruling.

A court official has now confirmed there will be no appeal and the judge has lifted the stay, allowing him to be publicly identified for the first time.