A satanist who apparently believes himself to be a vampire has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to religiously aggravated harassment after targeting churches.
Benjamin Lewis, 48, took the bodies of animals and left them outside churches in the New Forest, apparently as satanic symbols. Police believe he may have been carrying out such deeds since 2019.
The animals tended to be deer and lambs. While it is believed the deer were roadkill that Lewis found, DNA and CCTV evidence suggests he went to farms to kill lambs with a blow to the head and take their bodies.
A judge ordered a psychiatric report on Lewis after he initially introduced himself as Count Dracula at a pre-trial hearing.
PC Jessica Surman, of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, said the offences occurred at multiple churches, including Colbury Church, St Peter’s Church, Bramshaw and St Teresa’s Church in Totton.
Most of the offences were carried out at St Teresa’s Church where "multiple lambs were found on different days", she said.
“One of the lambs was found on the cross on the top of the roof. On other occasions, the lambs were found on the front of the steps or underneath the archway where a statue of St Teresa stands," said PC Surman.
“Underneath the statue there are steps. On those particular steps, inverted crosses were found at the same time.”
The crimes were so distressing that some people stopped going to church or visiting the graves of loved ones.
“These were deeply distressing incidents for all concerned, not least the victims - those who owned the animals involved, those making the shocking discovery of animal remains when attending churches in our area, and the community as a whole," she said.
“The effects of will be long-lasting, long beyond today’s sentencing, with some people telling me they can no longer attend church. One lady even told me she no longer felt comfortable attending her family member’s grave."
New Forest District Commander, Chief Inspector Scott Johnson, said the sentencing "reflects many months of complex, investigative work by Neighbourhood Policing Teams and investigation teams in Hampshire & Isle of Wight Police".
“This crime series had a particular impact on the victims from the farming community and churchgoers, who were extremely distressed by the crimes under investigation," he said.
“I hope this sentence goes some way to providing some closure for those victims and provides the best opportunity for rehabilitation for the offender and to keep our communities and animals safe moving forward.”
PC Surman told The Telegraph it had been one of the most “bizarre” cases she had ever been involved in.
“It’s one where you think you have reached the end of the bizarreness and then something else happens and it throws a curveball into the mix," she said.
Lewis was caught when police suspected that he may have been timing his crimes to coincide with dates of significance to satanists. Once they made the link, they waited outside churches on such dates and caught him in the act.
He pleaded guilty to five counts of religiously aggravated harassment and two counts of theft.
