Teenager who committed Blundell's School hammer attacks named
An order preventing the naming of 17 year old Thomas Wei Huang has been lifted
Last updated 1st Nov 2024
A public schoolboy who attacked two sleeping students and a teacher with hammers at a boarding school can now be named as 17-year-old Thomas Wei Huang.
He was publicly identified after a High Court judge lifted an order preventing his naming following an application by the PA news agency.
Huang, who is from Malaysia, was detained for life last month after being convicted of three counts of attempted murder following the incident at Blundell's School in Devon last year.
The teenager, who was then aged 16, was wearing just his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.
The teenager admitted assaulting the two boys and the housemaster at Blundell's School in Tiverton, saying he was not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity because of sleepwalking.
But the jury rejected this and found him guilty at Exeter Crown Court of three counts of attempted murder.
At his sentencing hearing last month, judge Mrs Justice Cutts said experts were unable to say how long the defendant would pose a risk to the public and imposed a sentence of detention for life with a minimum term of 12 years.
"You planned your offences and used hammers you had bought as weapons," she said.
"You knew full well if you hit the boys multiple times with the hammers they would die.
"You are an intelligent boy and I am satisfied you knew the difference between right and wrong.
"In my view there remains a significant risk that you could behave in this way again. I consider that you pose a high level of danger to the public because of the nature of your offences."
Huang had armed himself with three claw hammers and waited for the two boys to be asleep before attacking them.
The two pupils were asleep in 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 asleep in his own quarters, was woken by noises coming from the boarding house and went to investigate.
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.
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.
They had suffered skull fractures and injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.
The court heard 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 received six blows to his head but made a full recovery.
At the sentencing hearing, Mrs Justice Cutts lifted the reporting restriction preventing the teenager being identified.
But lawyers representing Huang indicated they wished to appeal and Mrs Justice Cutts ordered a stay on her ruling.
A court official has now confirmed no appeal will be made and the judge has lifted the stay allowing him to be publicly identified for the first time.