Scott W. Davis
10-07-2003, 02:42 PM
A young Scotish man has told the High Court in Edinburgh that a movie vampire made him kill his lifelong friend.
Allan Menzies claims he had become obsessed with the 2002 film, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. In particular, he was taken with the title character, played by the late R&B singer Aaliyah. In the film, Akasha is a vampire goddess who holds the vampire Lestat under her spell for a time.
Menzies claims that Akasha would visit him in his bedroom. "In general terms, she started off having conversations with me and it ended up that I had basically agreed with her that if I murdered people I would be rewarded in the next life," he said. "I would be made immortal in the next life - a vampire, basically."
Menzies allegedly told police that he had drunk his victim's blood and ate part of his head. He also claims that Akasha told him that several people were trying to murder him, including his father, another friend Stuart Unwin and the victim, Thomas McKendrick. Menzies says he killed McKendrick but that his father, Thomas Menzies and Stuart Unwin disposed of the body.
Menzies claims that Akasha has continued to visit him and offer him immortality but that he has refused to kill anyone else. He says Akasha claimed the trial was a farce.
Menzies claims to have seen QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (which incidentally, got my vote for Worst Film of 2002) over one hundred times in the span of a few weeks. Afterwards, he claimed he wanted to "go out and murder people."
The murder is said to have taken place on December 11, 2002. Menzies has spent over five months in the State Hospital at Carstairs, where he claims to still be visited by Akasha, whose demands he has since refused. The jury at the High Court in Edinburgh has been told that Menzies, of Fauldhouse, West Lothian, offered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide for reasons of diminished responsibility but that was rejected by the Crown.
The defense, Donald MacLeod, has suggested his client was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. This claim has been rejected by two psychiatrists.
"I do not consider that at the time of the alleged offence he was suffering from any form of alienation of reason arising from any mental illness," Dr. Derek Chiswick said. Chiswick does however believe that Menzies suffers from an "anti-social personality disorder."
When the defense claimed Menzies could suffer from a "slow-moving" form of schizophrenia, Dr. Colin Gray countered, "That's a possibility, although it would not be my experience that someone with schizophrenia would present over the relatively protracted period of time he has been in hospital without some clear evidence of the disorder."
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Allan Menzies claims he had become obsessed with the 2002 film, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. In particular, he was taken with the title character, played by the late R&B singer Aaliyah. In the film, Akasha is a vampire goddess who holds the vampire Lestat under her spell for a time.
Menzies claims that Akasha would visit him in his bedroom. "In general terms, she started off having conversations with me and it ended up that I had basically agreed with her that if I murdered people I would be rewarded in the next life," he said. "I would be made immortal in the next life - a vampire, basically."
Menzies allegedly told police that he had drunk his victim's blood and ate part of his head. He also claims that Akasha told him that several people were trying to murder him, including his father, another friend Stuart Unwin and the victim, Thomas McKendrick. Menzies says he killed McKendrick but that his father, Thomas Menzies and Stuart Unwin disposed of the body.
Menzies claims that Akasha has continued to visit him and offer him immortality but that he has refused to kill anyone else. He says Akasha claimed the trial was a farce.
Menzies claims to have seen QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (which incidentally, got my vote for Worst Film of 2002) over one hundred times in the span of a few weeks. Afterwards, he claimed he wanted to "go out and murder people."
The murder is said to have taken place on December 11, 2002. Menzies has spent over five months in the State Hospital at Carstairs, where he claims to still be visited by Akasha, whose demands he has since refused. The jury at the High Court in Edinburgh has been told that Menzies, of Fauldhouse, West Lothian, offered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide for reasons of diminished responsibility but that was rejected by the Crown.
The defense, Donald MacLeod, has suggested his client was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. This claim has been rejected by two psychiatrists.
"I do not consider that at the time of the alleged offence he was suffering from any form of alienation of reason arising from any mental illness," Dr. Derek Chiswick said. Chiswick does however believe that Menzies suffers from an "anti-social personality disorder."
When the defense claimed Menzies could suffer from a "slow-moving" form of schizophrenia, Dr. Colin Gray countered, "That's a possibility, although it would not be my experience that someone with schizophrenia would present over the relatively protracted period of time he has been in hospital without some clear evidence of the disorder."
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