Vampire-obsessed youth 'butchered neighbour for her blood'

A VAMPIRE-OBSESSED teenager killed an elderly neighbour and drank her blood because he wanted to be immortal, a court was told yesterday.

The 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of butchering 90-year-old widow Mabel Leyshon at her home in Llanfair, Anglesey, Wales.

Mrs Leyshon's chest was "ripped open" and her heart removed before being wrapped in newspaper and placed in a saucepan on top of a silver platter.

Pokers were left crossed at her feet in the shape of either a cross or inverted cross, a jury at Mold Crown Court was told.

Roger Thomas QC, prosecuting, said, "By November 24, 2001, the defendant had learned quite a lot about vampires, certainly enough to satisfy his two main questions: how do I become a vampire and how do I become immortal?

"He had decided what he had to do a sacrifice, the murder of another human being was necessary to achieve his ends.

"And with his parents away he committed what we submit to you was a planned, deliberate murder to satisfy his own grotesque and selfish ends."

The jury was told that the teenager, who denies murder, got into Mrs Leyshon's house by throwing a slab through the back-door window while the deaf pensioner watched television in her lounge.

He then attacked her from behind, stabbing her a total of 22 times, including eight times in the shoulder and breast, three times in the neck and five times in the back.

One wound, a deep gash to her chest through which the pensioner's heart was literally torn out, was 20 centimetres long and 23 centimetres wide.

Mr Thomas said that after killing Mrs Leyshon, the teenager ripped or cut off most of her clothing and put her body on a different armchair with her naked legs propped up on a stool.

He then made several deep gashes along her legs, to drain blood into a small saucepan he had taken from the kitchen.

Whoever carried out the "macabre" ritual appeared to have taken his time, Mr Thomas said.

The teenager was not insane but carried out the murder because of his obsession with vampires, he told the jury.

"What may have started out as a bizarre interest became an obsession and led ultimately to murder.

"The defendant is for all purposes perfectly sane. There is no medical issue for you to consider. He is entirely responsible for his actions," Mr Thomas said.

The teenager's vampire obsession led to his arrest one month before the killing, the jury was told.

The youth had befriended a 16-year-old German exchange student who lived in lodgings nearby, and enjoyed long discussions with her about vampires before eventually telling her that he thought she was a vampire.

In the girl's bedroom, he pushed his neck against her mouth and begged her to bite him so that he too could become a vampire.

The German exchange student, who is now living in Germany but returned to the UK to give evidence, told the jury how the defendant had become violent when she refused to bite his neck.

She said: "It was really sick the way he advertised his neck. He said, 'Here's my neck and this side is even tastier.'"