School hammer attack: Boy 'stored weapons for apocalypse'
A teenager who attacked two students and a teacher with hammers at a Devon boarding school was storing weapons for an "apocalypse", a court has heard.
The pupil from Blundell's School in Tiverton attacked the three in June 2023, Exeter Crown Court has heard.
One victim, who had life-changing injuries, told police in an interview played to the jury the boy underwent "complete change" over a summer.
The 17-year-old denies three counts of attempted murder. The trial continues.
'Unkind' messages
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons and was 16 at the time, launched the attacks in one of the school's boarding houses shortly before 01:00 BST on 9 June 2023, the court heard.
As well as the boys, housemaster Henry-Roffe Silvester, 38 at the time, was also attacked and suffered serious injuries when he went to investigate noise.
In the recorded interview, the interviewee, one of the boy's victims, said: "There was a complete change during the summer holidays because before that he was nice."
Over Christmas or in the spring term, the accused sent him "unkind" messages, including telling him to die, he told police.
The court heard teaching staff carried out searches of dormitories after items were going missing and discovered the defendant kept a hammer.
The boy said a staff member "asked me had I asked the defendant why he had got a hammer in his room, and he had said he had got the idea of the apocalypse, and he was preparing for the apocalypse".
He added: "The other time was the Christmas term last year and things had gone missing and there were searches and Mr Roffe-Silvester found his hammers and... the excuse the defendant gave was the apocalypse.
"He kept mentioning in computer science about the apocalypse and how it was going to happen in 2023 or 2024."
The boy's 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.
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