School hammer attack: Housemaster describes hammer attack by schoolboy

A boarding school teacher has described being chased down a corridor by a pupil who was attacking him with a hammer.

Henry Roffe-Silvester had gone to investigate noises coming from a boarding house in the middle of the night, Exeter Crown Court heard.

He told the court he was struck six times by a student at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon, in June 2023.

The pupil, aged 17, denies three counts of attempted murder against the teacher and two other pupils.

The court heard housemaster Mr Roffe-Silvester had been woken by footsteps coming from a dormitory directly above his living quarters shortly before 01:00 BST on 9 June.

He said that as he opened the door into the dark room, the accused "turned towards me and struck me on the head with a hammer".

He said: "Physically I stumbled backwards into the corridor.

"There was a second blow, I can't remember if it was before I stumbled back, that's a little bit hazy for me."

Mr Roffe-Silvester, a maths teacher, said all six blows from the student were to his head.

"I was telling him that it's me in the doorway and not someone else," he said.

"I am going backwards down the corridor with the defendant coming towards me still and trying to hit me with the hammer again.

"I was definitely shouting for help at that point, I don't remember the exact words."

Mr Roffe-Silvester said he managed to get the hammer from the defendant who then slumped down in the corridor, as if squatting.

The defendant's demeanour "changed significantly from being a sort of rage to calm, as I would normally see him".

He told the jury he asked another boy to stay with the defendant and he heard the defendant tell that boy: "I was dreaming" and "(an alleged victim) had a hammer".

Mr Roffe-Silvester told the court he was then called to the dormitory by other teenagers who had discovered two boys lying in their beds severely injured.

There was a large pool of blood by one student's bed and the other boy was covered in blood and was making groaning noises.

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

The jury heard Mr Roffe-Silvester did not have his phone with him and another student called the emergency services.

He said he found two hammers in the room and put them with the hammer he had taken from the defendant in his office until the police arrived.

The defence team has admitted the boy carried out the attacks, but denied it was attempted murder, and said the boy was "sleepwalking and therefore not functioning" when he did so.

The defendant cannot be named for legal reasons and was 16 at the time of the attacks.

The trial continues.

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