BRITAIN: A teenager "obsessed" by vampires and accused of killing a woman and drinking her blood was arrested two months before the murder when he asked a police officer to "bite my neck", a court in England was told yesterday.
But the arresting officer did not link the bizarre incident to the murder, even after gruesome details of the killing were revealed on a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction, the trial was told.
Mabel Leyshon, a 90-year-old widow, was stabbed to death at her bungalow on Anglesey, north Wales, last November. Her heart was ripped out and wrapped in newspaper before being placed in a saucepan on top of a silver platter next to her body. It is alleged the saucepan was filled with blood which was then drunk by the murderer.
A 17-year-old art student, who prosecutors claim was "obsessed" by vampires, denies murdering Mrs Leyshon.
A jury at Mold Crown Court, which was sitting in Chester, heard evidence from a police officer who arrested the defendant on September 23rd - more than two months before the murder on November 24th.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had gone to the lodgings of a 16-year-old German student whom he had met through his friend, an 18-year-old Chinese student who also lived in the lodgings.
He spent two hours chatting with the girl before accusing her of being a vampire and begging her to transform him into one of the creatures by biting his neck. He became violent when she refused and had to be dragged away by the Chinese student and the landlady, who called the police after the defendant punched himself on the nose and asked them to smell his blood.
Sgt Peter Nicholson went to the house at around 1.30 a.m. on September 23rd. "Inside the house I saw a male youth sitting on a settee. I later discovered this was the defendant," he told the court. "I attempted to speak to him to try to get him to leave peacefully. He didn't make any sort of coherent response. All he could say was 'bite my neck'."
The defendant was arrested for breach of the peace and taken to the station. He was not charged.
Asked why he failed to link the bizarre incident with the murder of Mrs Leyshon, Sgt Nicholson said the ritualistic parts of the killing were not common knowledge and he did not know about them.
When it was revealed on a BBC Crimewatch programme in December 2001 that Mrs Leyshon's heart had been removed, Sgt Nicholson still failed to make the connection.
When asked why, he told the court: "I didn't actually see the Crimewatch programme".
The case continues.
- (PA)