A man who put deer heads and slaughtered lambs with inverted crosses at churches in the New Forest has been detained under the Mental Health Act.
Warning: Some readers may find content in this article distressing.
Benjamin Lewis, who is fascinated with vampires and satanism, previously pleaded guilty to five counts of religiously aggravated harassment and two counts of theft of lambs between February and August 2025.
Southampton Crown Court heard lambs were stolen from two small Hampshire farms and Lewis, 48, had killed them by cutting their throats before dumping their bodies at four churches.
Laura Deuxberry, prosecuting, said a deer's head was found with an inverted wooden cross at St Theresa's Church in Totton, Southampton, followed by a lamb being placed on a light fixture below a statue of Mary along with another inverted cross in February 2025.
At Christ Church in Emery Down, Lewis also dumped a headless deer during February followed at a later date by a deer's head being put in the pulpit on top of a cross which had been moved from the altar.
Lewis, of Totton, also targeted St Peter's Church in Bramshaw, where a dead lamb was put on a flagpole with a tarot card next to it, and a deer's head "crawling with maggots" was placed on a pew later.
A lamb was placed on a tree stump with an inverted stone cross next to it at Christ's Church in Colbury, Ms Deuxberry said.
A deer's head with an inverted cross was put on the gates of the Anchor House mental health facility in Totton where Lewis had previously been treated, according to the prosecutor.
After Lewis was arrested, deer blood was found in the boot of his car, with mixed animal blood in the vehicle, Ms Deuxberry added.
She said when police searched his home, officers found satanic symbols and ritual notes as well as sketches of vampires and "concerning books about vampires and how best to kill humans".
A suitcase containing inverted crosses and images of "people cutting and sucking blood from each other" was also discovered.
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Judge William Mousley KC said that "these offences taken together would otherwise have justified substantial sentences of imprisonment", as he ordered Lewis to be detained in hospital with restrictions.
He had been diagnosed with severe autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder as well as mixed personality disorder and a mild learning disability, consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Gauruv Malhan told the court.
Lewis, who appeared via videolink, told the court after he was sentenced: "I want to just apologise to the victims because they said they were worried about me if I was to come out, I do not want people to worry about me."
He was also convicted of religious harassment in 2003 in the first case of its kind in the country.
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