Hammer-wielding public schoolboy named by judge

A public schoolboy handed a life sentence for attacking two sleeping students and a teacher with claw hammers, while they slept at a Devon boarding school, has been named.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

A judge lifted reporting restrictions protecting the identity of 17year-old Thomas Wei Huang yesterday.

The teenager admitted to assaulting the two boys and the housemaster at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, insisting he was not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity because he was sleepwalking. The then 16-year-old was wearing just his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

But the jury rejected this and found him guilty at Exeter Crown Court of three counts of attempted murder earlier this month.

Trial judge Ms 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.