This Much is True Crime

The Welsh Vampire: Criminologist Explains What Drove Him to Murder

This Much is True Crime

Show Notes

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In November 2001, 90 year old Mabel Leyshon was murdered inside her home on Anglesey in one of Wales's most disturbing murder cases.Her killer was 17 year old Mathew Hardman, a former paperboy who had developed an obsession with vampires and the idea that he could achieve immortality.

Mabel was stabbed 22 times before her body was subjected to a series of bizarre rituals. Hardman removed her heart, drank her blood and positioned two fire pokers at her feet in the shape of a cross.

The case became known as the ‘Welsh Vampire Murder’, but what drove a teenager to commit such an extraordinary crime? We look back at Mabel's murder, the evidence that led police to Hardman and the disturbing obsession behind the killing.

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