Man ‘killed friend to become immortal’

A SCOTTISH man told a court yesterday how he killed his lifelong friend and drank his blood because he believed it would guarantee him immortality as a vampire.

Allan Menzies, 22, told the High Court in Edinburgh he was now a vampire after killing 21-year-old Thomas McKendrick on December 11 last year.

Menzies, of Fauldhouse, West Lothian, also told how he attacked McKendrick who he had known since he was four after he insulted a character in a vampire movie.

The former security guard told how he had become obsessed with the film Queen of the Damned, in which the late US singer Aaliyah played the female vampire Akasha, and had watched it around 100 times. He said Akasha would visit him in his bedroom and the pair had struck a deal in which he would achieve immortality if he killed people.

Giving evidence on the sixth day of his trial, Menzies said that after killing Mr McKendrick he had drunk two cupfuls of his victim's blood and ate part of his skull.

He said that after the killing he had become the character 'Vamp'.

Menzies' defence counsel, Donald MacLeod, asked him: "Are you telling us that you now believe you are a vampire?" Menzies replied: "Yes."

His advocate then asked: "Do you believe that you will gain immortality?" Menzies said: "Yes."

Mr MacLeod then asked: "Do you believe that you achieved that by killing Thomas?", to which Menzies replied: "Yes."

Menzies denies murdering Mr McKendrick and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

The jury has been told that Menzies offered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility but that was rejected by the Crown.

Earlier, Menzies told how he and Mr McKendrick were at his home on the morning of December 11 and a row broke out over the film.

The trial continues.