Blundell’s hammer attack was typical of sleepwalking – expert

A boarding school pupil who attacked two sleeping students and his housemaster with a hammer would have been sleepwalking, an expert has told a court.

The 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of the attempted murder of two students and Henry Roffe-Silvester at Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, in June 2023.

Sleep forensic expert, Dr Mark Pressman, told Exeter Crown Court the defendant’s attack was “a textbook example of sleepwalking violence”.

The defence accepts the teenager carried out the hammer attacks but claims he was sleepwalking at the time. The pupil denies three counts of attempted murder.