Teenager detained for 12 years minimum for attempted murder at private Blundell’s school in Devon
A teenager who attacked two sleeping students and a teacher with hammers at a private school in Devon has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 12 years after being found guilty of attempted murder.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was armed with three claw hammers and waited for the two boys to be asleep before attacking them at Blundell’s school in Tiverton, Exeter crown court heard.
He was wearing just his boxer shorts and used weapons he had collected to prepare for a “zombie apocalypse”, the court was told.
So rich kid with (probably) autism attacks two other rich kids in their…. Cabins (?) while wearing only his underwear with hammers and also a teacher that came to help. He claims he was sleepwalking. Badly injures them, gets minimum 12-life for the attack.
Every part of that story is wild.
The judge said the boy experiences an autism spectrum disorder …
That’s not for a judge to determine.
Edit: While the above statement remains true, reporting elsewhere shows:
Kerim Fuad KC, defending, told the court the defendant had also been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder …
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c781p92vdyko
Sloppy journalism from The Guardian here.
What makes you think that’s not the judge just reading a medical professional’s opinion?
Did the judge actually determine it, or did the judge just relay information given to them by someone else?
If the judge said it then it would have been established fact in the case. This can be established by evidence and found as fact in the case, or it can be part of the agreed facts of the case, in which case the court doesn’t waste time hearing evidence. All it takes to become agreed fact is for the defence to present it as part of their case and for the prosecution to not dispute it.
In that context the finding of fact by the court is more than enough for the paper to report on it, and the two versions presented by you of it being said by the defence and by the judge, are entirely compatible with one another. Nobody is going to demand to see the boy’s medical history to verify an uncontroversial point like this. That would just be a waste of time.
The papers presented it as stated by the defence and the judge, they said nothing false or misleading, and I don’t see any problem with that part of their reporting.
Now, if you have an issue that it was reported because it casts autistic people in a bad light, the issue becomes whether you think it’s something the papers should leave out. Well, the defence considered it important, and it became news. Not much we can do about that after the fact.
I don’t get why this is sloppy. They didn’t say he diagnosed him with autism, only that he said he experiences it.
You jumped to conclusions and are trying to blame them. I certainly did not interpret it the same way you did.
The fact that it can be interpreted in multiple different ways makes it sloppy. Should be more explicit.
The only authority cited in the article for this autism diagnosis is the judge. A different article stated that the defendant’s attorney “told the court that [the defendant] had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder …” That’s far more trustworthy than the judge “saying” it.
Excluding that context is sloppy journalism.
British Private Schools:
Fagging was a traditional practice in British public schools and also at many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the eldest boys.[1][2][3] Although probably originating earlier, the first accounts of fagging appeared in the late 17th century.[4]: 23 Fagging sometimes involved physical abuse[4]: 23–25 and/or sexual abuse.[5] Although lessening in severity over the centuries, the practice continued in some institutions until the end of the 20th century.[4]: 23–25
Is no one else going to mention the possibility that this kid was severely bullied and abused? I’m not trying to suggest any justification or excuse for attacking sleeping people with hammers, but it is such abnormal behavior that it seems at least possible to me that this kid was driven to extreme violence out of desperation.
Weird kid in a private boarding school, withdrawn, perhaps autistic mostly online.
Reading between the lines there’s a pretty good chance that the other kids were mercilessly picking on him.
The zombie invasion line might well have been an attempt to get out of premeditation that he didn’t go and grab the hammers to kill them.
He’s still squarely in the wrong and definitely needs to be pulled out of society for a very long time and get psychologic help, But I strongly suspect there are some things at play here that aren’t being reported on.
Given I haven’t met a lot of psychopaths, But I have met plenty of children who have been bullied until they snapped.
Crazy in the coconut
It’s not ableism. He beat sleeping people with hammers. He could have zero disabilities and he’d still be a violent loon. No other autistic people are going around hitting people with hammers.
the ableist part is saying you must be crazy if you do a violent thing, when reality shows the mentally ill are far far more likely to be a victim than the perp in a violent crime.
edit: also, ya know, this whole thread of ‘probably autistic’ speculation.
This article really requires a “white boy” before all the brits start burning hotels with refugees again
It’s a private school, so safe to assume there is a 0% refugee student body.
It takes zero effort to be explicit. It would also lessens the misinformation potential.
Nice way of being racist; brown people can’t attend a private school huh…
