A 47-year-old man has pleaded guilty to dumping a decapitated deer’s head and lambs outside churches in the New Forest.
Benjamin Lewis admitted seven offences relating to leaving the animal carcasses at various locations around the national park in Hampshire between February 5 and April 29.
The defendant, of Totton, Southampton, appeared at Southampton Crown Court on Monday where he admitted stealing lambs from local residents Myra Noyce and Sarah Harrison between April 1 and 30.
Lewis also pleaded guilty to five counts of religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress.
The court heard that the animal bodies were found outside a series of churches, including Christ’s Church in Colbury, St Peter’s Church in Bramshaw, St Theresa’s Church in Totton, and Christ Church in Emery Down.
Described by Hampshire Police as ‘disturbing’, the incidents follow a spate of suspected satanic animal killings that have taken place within the New Forest in recent years.
Lewis admitted within his charges that he displayed a sign which was hostile towards a membership of a religious group.
Appearing in the dock wearing a grey jumper, Lewis only spoke to give his name and pleas. Lewis was told he will remain in custody until his sentencing on February 4.
Benjamin Lewis, 47, has pleaded guilty to dumping a decapitated deer’s head and lambs outside churches in the New Forest. Pictured: A deer’s head found outside St Theresa’s Church in Totton earlier this year
The decapitated deer’s head found outside St Theresa’s Church was described as one of many ‘disturbing’ incidents investigated by Hampshire Police
The incidents followed a spate of similar occurrences in 2024, when the severed head of a deer was found placed on top of a parish council stone in Burley
He appeared in court as four young women looked on from the public gallery – one of whom was said to be his daughter.
Judge Jaron Crooknorth said: ‘You will be remanded in custody until the next hearing.’
Earlier this year, New Forest District Commander, Chief Inspector Scott Johnson, said the ‘disturbing incidents have been upsetting for those who discovered them and will be concerning for our wider community’.
In April of this year, a dead lamb was found hung outside a church in Totton, Hampshire.
That evening another carcass, with its throat slit, was found on Penn Common in Bramshaw, Hampshire.
In recent years, there has been a spate of incidents involving suspected satanic killings in the New Forest.
In May 2024 there were two possibly cult-related incidents with a flock of sheep being mutilated and killed, as well as a deer’s head being left on top of a headstone.
In Burley, home of the famous witch Sybil Leek, the head of a young deer was left resting on a Parish Council headstone marking the turn of the millennium, alongside a hedonistic upside down cross.
In 2019 suspected ‘Satanists’ stabbed sheep and sprayed them with pentagrams
A vicar warned of ‘sinister goings on’ after animal hearts surrounded by candles were found close to a church in Stagbury Hill in January 2023
In Cadnam, six ewes and lambs were found brutally stabbed in a sheep-killing spree, with one being discovered with its throat slit.
At the 12th century St Peter’s Church in New Forest village Bramshaw, congregation members found a cat hanging from a flagpole in December 2022, just weeks after a dead fox was found near its doorstep.
In January 2023, police were alerted to possible Satanists after pig hearts were found on top of Bronze Age mound surrounded by 30 candles on Stagbury Hill in the New Forest.
This raised fears of an animal sacrifice, with pigs often the focus of religious rituals stretching back to ancient Greek times, usually to appease a supernatural being, though it is not known if it was merely just a prank.
In 2020, a sheep was found stabbed in Cadnam and dumped next to a cross and pitchfork.
In 2019, Bramshaw was further plagued by suspected Satanists after two dead sheep were found with pentagrams spray-painted on their bodies, a cow was stabbed in the neck and the number 666 was daubed on the doors of the church.
Satanism is a religious, or counter-cultural practice, based on the figure of Satan, otherwise known as the Devil.
In Christianity and Judaism, the figure is seen as the embodiment of absolute evil.