Teen paperboy with vampire obsession ripped elderly woman's heart out and drank her blood to be immortal
A teenage boy who was obsessed with vampires killed an elderly woman, 90, ripped her heart out and drank her blood.
Channel 5's new documentary series 'The Kids Who Kill' looks at the case of Matthew Hardman who had committed one of the most gruesome murders in the UK's legal history in 2001. Hardman was 17 at the time he murdered Mabel Leyshon as he believed he would become immortal.
The documentary looks at the brutality of Hardman's crimes against the pensioner.
The Murder
The sickening murder took place on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. The crime came as a huge shock to those who knew the boy and describe him as 'remarkably normal'. Hardman was a paperboy and Leyshon knew him. He broke into the elderly woman's home while she was watching tv.
He stabbed Leyshon around 22 times and cut open her chest to remove her heart and drank blood from it.
He then laid down two pokers in a cross shape by her feet. Her body was found two days later.
Vampire Obsession
Hardman had earlier been an art student and had also attacked a German exchange student after she refused to bite him on the neck to make him immortal. The twisted teen had also told the authorities that old people were the kind to have their blood drunk by vampires.
It came to be known that Harman had been smoking cannabis and had been searching through the internet for "vampires, gothic flesh-eating and other macabre things." According to detective Sgt. Lestyn Davies, Hardman had "this deep-rooted insanity".
"He believed if he murdered this old lady of 90, disemboweled her, ripped her heart out and drank her blood, he would be a vampire forever," he shared. "Now, to believe that is insane. He was one of the most violent evil offenders that I have dealt with."
"If he had got away with it, if we had not discovered him, he could have gone on and committed further horrendous crimes," detective Supt Jones revealed. People who knew him had begun to see a change in him. He had developed a fixation on vampires and had started to believe that they may actually exist in reality.
Sentencing
During his trial, the prosecution barrister explained that Hardman "believed they existed, believed they drank human blood and believed most importantly that they could achieve immortality." There was overwhelming evidence that Hardman had committed the crime.
He had left a lot of DNA trail on the scene and had also stored the murder weapon with traces of Leyshon's blood in his bedroom. He was convicted and sentenced to prison for life at the Mold Crown Couty in 2002. At the sentencing, Judge Richards had shared there was enough evidence to indicate that Hardman believed that he could achieve immortality by killing Leyshon and drinking her blood.
Justice Richards said, "You have been convicted by the jury on the strength of the most compelling evidence. The horrific nature of this murder was plain to all. It was a vicious and sustained attack on a vulnerable old lady in her own home, aggravated by the mutilation of her body after she had been killed."
"It was planned and carefully calculated. You hoped for immortality but all you have achieved is the brutal ending of another person's life and the bringing of a life sentence upon yourself," Daily Mail reports.