Vampire-obsessed man detained after dumping animal corpses outside churches in New Forest

A man fascinated with vampires and graveyards who apparently believed he would live for ever if he drank blood has been detained in hospital after being caught dumping animal corpses outside churches in a British forest.

Benjamin Lewis, 48, left the bodies of sheep and deer on the doorsteps of churches in the New Forest in Hampshire, frightening parishioners and upsetting farmers whose livestock he stole and slaughtered.

As part of the operation to trap Lewis, police officers carried out surveillance on ecclesiastical sites on significant dates in the satanic calendar.

Lewis was finally arrested after traces of his DNA were found on a lamb’s remains. He admitted causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress and the theft of lambs.

During an earlier court appearance, Lewis, of Totton, Southampton, answered “Count Dracula” when asked to identify himself.

Judge William Mousley KC said he would be detained for treatment unless and until either a mental health tribunal or the justice secretary considered it safe for him to be released.

After his sentence, Lewis, who appeared via video link from hospital, apologised to his victims and said he bore no grudge towards the police who had caught him.

Speaking outside court, PC Jessica Surman of Hampshire police said it was the most unusual case she had worked on. “It’s one where you think you have reached the end of the bizarreness and then something else happens and throws a curveball into the mix.”

Lewis believed drinking blood would prolong his life, Surman said. “And if he drinks it enough he won’t go to hell, he won’t die and he will become a vampire.”

Police began investigating when dead animals – lambs stolen from farmers and deer killed on roads – started being found at churches.

Surman said police began to see a pattern in his offending. “We were almost able to predict when he was going to be striking.” They consulted satanic calendars, posting officers at churches on significant days.

People connected to the churches Lewis focused on were very concerned. “We have had people who were so upset and frightened by it, they couldn’t go to church,” Surman said. One woman was too scared to visit the church where her son was buried.

Laura Deuxberry, prosecuting, told Southampton crown court that lambs and deer were left by Lewis outside and inside churches, sometimes with an inverted cross nearby. A tarot card was also left near one.

A lamb was put on a cross on top of a church and a second close to a statue of Jesus’s mother, Mary. Another lamb was left in a church pulpit on a cross taken from the altar. On one occasion children saw what had happened and were very distressed.

One vicar said it made him angry – as if the “opposition” had left a signature. Another said: “It’s an insidious way to make a point.”

A church warden said she was “on edge” when she went to one of the churches Lewis targeted. She said he was trying to cause fear and unrest. A churchgoer said she felt someone was sending a “sadistic message”.

Deuxberry said one of the incidents centred on a community mental health facility close to Lewis’s home. A deer’s head and an inverted cross were left on the gates. The person who found the head said she was shocked and afterwards feared the culprit was watching her.

When police searched Lewis’s home they found sketches of vampires, notes about rituals and references to sucking blood.

Deuxberry said the offences he had been charged with took place between February and August last year but there had been concerns over him for a number of years.

The woods and heaths of the New Forest national park are the setting for all manner of tales of witches, pixies, cursed souls and rituals, and even today are a magnet for those fascinated by the otherworldly.

The village of Burley was the home of the “white witch” Sybil Leek, who wrote books on witchcraft and was famed for strolling around with her pet jackdaw.

But Lewis’s actions were quite different. Livestock owners that Lewis stole from were very disturbed. “It’s a terrible thing to do,” said Myra Noyce, one of the people Lewis took lambs from.

“It’s upset us all, made us feel very uncomfortable. This is a lovely part of the world and to think of someone going around doing something like that is horrible.”

Sarah Harrison, a New Forest farmer Lewis stole black lambs from, said: “It’s pretty awful – there are some silly people around. One of her lambs ended up outside St Peter’s church in the village of Bramshaw, another draped over a finger post. “I suppose it’s to do with his beliefs but it’s scared some people.”

In her victim personal statement, Harrison said she had been scared to walk alone at night and had thought about leaving the New Forest, though her family had lived there for generations. “I’m wondering what will it be next. When I hear a sound outside I think is that him.”

She said the lambs would have suffered when he cut their throat and he put the bodies on show as if they meant nothing. She said the incidents had put the flock on alert.

The consultant psychiatrist Dr Gauruv Malhan told the court Lewis had “complex mental health difficulties” and had recently been moved from a low- to medium-secure hospital.

He said at the age of 13 Lewis had left a dead frog on a cross in church and the psychiatrist said he feared he could harm humans as well as animals. In hospital he had assaulted other patients and attempted to assault Malhan when he visited him and had to be restrained.

Andrew Price, defending, said Lewis was sorry and recognised he had done wrong.

Lewis’s conviction is not his first brush with the law. In 2003 he was jailed for terrorising a vicar and his family near his home by claiming to be a vampire. He and another man made abusive and frightening phone calls, set off fireworks and posted obscene pictures on the church noticeboard.