‘Sleepwalking public school boy obsessed with zombies hit pupils with claw hammers’

A PUBLIC schoolboy bludgeoned two fellow boarders with hammers as they slept then claimed he had been sleepwalking, jurors heard yesterday.

The 16-year-old launched the beating after watching horror films and hoarding weapons for a ‘zombie apocalypse’.

A court heard he was wearing just his boxer shorts during the attack at Blundell’s School in Devon, where fees cost up to £44,955 a year.

Exeter Crown Court was told the teenager, who cannot be identified, armed himself with three of the four claw hammers he owned and set upon the two boys while they slept in cabin-style beds in a boarding house.

James Dawes, prosecuting, said: ‘The defendant ... decided to put into action a plan that he had been fermenting in his head for some time. And that plan was to kill the two boys, and he decided to do it while they slept in their own beds, and he decided to do it with a hammer.’

Mr Dawes said the defendant ‘smashed a hammer or hammers’ into the boys’ heads, multiple times. ‘He didn’t just use the flat end of the hammer,’ the KC added, ‘he used the claw end as well to strike these boys.’

The court heard that housemaster Henry Roffe-Silvester woke to noises coming from the boarding house last June and went to investigate. He was also repeatedly struck him over the head with a hammer. Another student heard the commotion and dialled 999 as Mr Roffe- Silvester retreated down the corridor.

The boy was taken to the matron’s office, where a student was told to ‘keep an eye’ on him.

Mr Dawes added: ‘The defendant told the student he had hammers and he had been watching horror movies lately.’ The prosecutor said the boy claimed he had fallen asleep after watching a movie and then carried out the attack – but evidence suggested he was using his iPad until moments beforehand.

The court heard that when the student asked the boy again about what happened, he said ‘he was watching horror movies and he had weapons to prepare for the zombie apocalypse and to protect himself’.

One student heard the defendant say: ‘I am sorry, I was dreaming.’ And another told police the teenager said: ‘I am going to prison, I was sleepwalking.’

Both boys suffered skull fractures, as well as injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

A paramedic described the scene as the worst he had encountered in 20 years in emergency care, the court heard.

A colleague added: ‘ I have served in Iraq and had never seen such a scene of carnage.’

The defendant, now aged 17, denies three charges of attempted murder. The trial continues.

‘Never seen such carnage’