A British man who believed drinking blood would allow him to live forever has been detained in a secure hospital after admitting to dumping animal carcasses outside churches in England’s New Forest.
Benjamin Lewis, 48, left the bodies of sheep and deer at several churches across Hampshire, frightening parishioners and upsetting local farmers after stealing and slaughtering livestock.
Police launched an extensive investigation after dead animals began appearing outside and inside churches, often alongside inverted crosses and other ritualistic items. Officers even carried out surveillance at churches on significant dates in the satanic calendar after identifying a pattern in the incidents.
Lewis was eventually arrested after DNA recovered from a dead lamb matched his profile.
He pleaded guilty to causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, as well as stealing lambs from local farms.
During an earlier court appearance, Lewis identified himself as “Count Dracula” when asked to state his name.
Judge William Mousley KC ordered that Lewis be detained in hospital for psychiatric treatment and ruled he would only be released if a mental health tribunal or the UK Justice Secretary determined it was safe.
Following his sentencing, Lewis apologised to his victims and said he held no resentment towards the police officers who arrested him.
Police said Lewis believed that regularly drinking blood would prevent him from dying and turning him into a vampire.
Investigators discovered sketches of vampires, ritual notes and references to blood-drinking during a search of his home.
Prosecutors told the court that Lewis placed dead lambs and deer at churches between February and August last year. In one incident, a lamb was placed on top of a church cross, while another was left beside a statue of the Virgin Mary. Another carcass was found inside a church pulpit after a cross had been removed from the altar.
A deer’s head and an inverted cross were also left outside a nearby community mental health facility.
The disturbing incidents left many churchgoers fearful, with one woman reportedly too frightened to visit the church where her son was buried. Farmers whose animals were stolen also described the crimes as deeply distressing.
A consultant psychiatrist told the court Lewis suffered from complex mental health disorders and had recently been transferred from a low-security to a medium-security psychiatric hospital.
The psychiatrist also revealed Lewis had displayed disturbing behaviour since childhood, including placing a dead frog on a church cross at the age of 13, and warned that he could pose a risk to both people and animals.
Lewis has a previous criminal record linked to similar behaviour. In 2003, he was jailed after terrorising a local vicar and his family by claiming to be a vampire, making abusive phone calls, setting off fireworks and placing obscene images on church property.
