A TEENAGER found guilty of murdering his elderly neighbour and drinking her blood in a vampire ritual has lost a Court of Appeal bid to challenge his conviction.
Mathew Hardman, then 17, from Anglesey, was jailed last year for a minimum of 12 years after a trial at Mold Crown Court.
The jury was told the art student killed 90-year-old Mabel Leyshon and removed her heart in a Satanic-style ritual in November 2001.
His first bid to appeal was rejected by a single judge at the Court of Appeal earlier this year.
A new application for leave to appeal was rejected yesterday by three judges, Lord Justice Mantell, Mr Justice Butterfield and Mrs Justice Cox.
Hardman, now 18, has always denied harming the pensioner.
The three judges rejected a submission that the trial judge wrongly allowed potentially "devastating" evidence to go before the jury.
Hardman's mother Julie left the court in tears and did not comment on the outcome of the hearing.
The evidence at the centre of the hearing yesterday related to the interest in vampirism Hardman had shown prior to the killing, including asking a female student to bite his neck.
Lord Justice Mantell said, "We are perfectly satisfied that the judge was not only entitled, but right to admit the evidence." He added that anyone hearing the facts of the case as related in court yesterday "would think it extraordinary that the evidence to which we have referred were not to be placed before the jury for their consideration.
"Accordingly, the application must be dismissed."
Mrs Leyshon was killed while she was watching television at her home in Anglesey on November 24, 2001.
She had been stabbed 22 times, her heart had been removed and her legs severely cut and the blood drained into a saucepan, which was rimmed with lip marks - suggesting someone had been drinking from it.
This horrific scene was discovered the following day by a Meals on Wheels worker.
Police mounted an investigation but over the next month their leads went nowhere.
Late in December, when a Crimewatch appeal revealed the ritualistic aspects of the death, the killer was immediately dubbed 'The Vampire Murderer'.
More than 200 people got in touch with Crimewatch. The name of Mathew Hardman - who had been questioned in October 2001 for asking a foreign exchange student to bite his neck - was mentioned.
When his home was searched, police officers found magazines and books about vampires, including Bram Stoker's Dracula, and several occult internet sites bookmarked on his computer in a bid to find out how to become immortal. They also found a kitchen knife, which bore traces of Mrs Leyshon's blood.
The 6ft 1in teenager was arrested and charged with murder. He denied any involvement in the killing.
Last summer a jury at Mold Crown Court was told that Hardman had said Llanfairpwll was ideal for vampires because there were so many old people living in the village.
Hardman had first appealed on the basis that he was hoping that the judges would allow him to argue at appeal that he did not get a fair trial because he was portrayed as a "monster".