Vampire cultist sentenced over church carcasses

A man with a fascination with vampires, who stole lambs and left the carcasses along with occult symbols at churches, has been sentenced to detention in hospital.

Dead deer and lambs were discovered tied to a flagpole, in a pulpit or otherwise displayed at churches and at an NHS mental health office in Hampshire in 2025, Southampton Crown Court heard.

Benjamin Lewis, 48, of Totton, previously pleaded guilty to stealing lambs on two occasions and admitted five charges of religiously aggravated harassment.

Imposing a hospital order with restrictions, Judge William Mousley KC said Lewis was likely to be detained for a "significant" period of time.

Lewis had autism and personality disorders, and saw himself as belonging to a vampire cult, psychiatrist Dr Gauruv Malhan told the court.

The defendant had progressed from harming animals as a child to slaughtering stolen lambs and displaying their body parts, the court heard.

During his assessment, Lewis tried to attack the psychiatrist and was restrained and put in seclusion, Dr Malhan said.

"There is a concern his risk will escalate from harming animals to humans as well," the doctor told the judge.

In February 2025, a headless deer was found at Christ Church, Emery Down, followed two weeks later by a deer's head in the pulpit, the court heard.

The following month, Lewis left a deer's head on gates at Anchor House, an NHS facility involved in his psychiatric treatment.

In the same month, the rector of St Peter's Church, Bramshaw, found a dead lamb tied to a church flagpole along with a tarot card.

Months later, a decomposed deer's head was found on a pew inside the church.

In April, several lambs were stolen from a farm and a smallholding nearby.

Some of those were later found dead, including at Christ Church, Colbury, and at St Theresa's Church, Totton, where "distressed" children saw the carcass, the court was told.

Hampshire Police noticed that attacks coincided with phases of the moon or dates in satanic calendars and deployed officers to churches on those nights to catch the culprit.

Lewis was arrested in May 2025 and then again in September after one further church attack.

At his address in Kinross Road, police found "items referencing death and killing", as well as Satanic symbols and objects relating to vampires, prosecutors said.

He also had a suitcase with laminated newspaper clippings of similar crimes dating back to 2003, according to police.

PC Jess Surman said: "We've had people who were so upset and frightened by it that they couldn't go to church, or see loved ones who are buried in the church grounds because they've been scared of bumping in to him.

"It's only through perseverance and getting enough evidence that we've got a really good result this time and I can only hope that the community can sleep at ease with it."