Murderer ate friend's head, Scottish court hears

A man has admitted killing his friend, drinking his victim's blood and eating part of his head, a Scottish court heard today.

A man has admitted killing his friend, drinking his victim's blood and eating part of his head, a Scottish court heard today.

Mr Allan Menzies (22) is accused of murdering 21-year-old Thomas McKendrick in the West Lothian village on December 11th last year, and of burying him in a shallow grave.

Defence counsel Mr Donald MacLeod told the High Court in Edinburgh that his client, also known as Leon Menzies, denied both charges but offered a plea of guilty to culpable homicide for reasons of diminished responsibility, which was rejected by the Crown.

Mr Menzies' legal team also lodged a special defence of incrimination in respect of the second charge, of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, by claiming two other men sought to conceal the crime.

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The Crown says the Mr Menzies murdered Mr McKendrick at Menzies' home at Lanrigg Avenue, Fauldhouse, striking him repeatedly on the head with a baseball bat or similar instrument and striking him repeatedly on the head, face and body with a knife or similar instrument.

Constable Kenneth Gray told the court that on January 18th he had spotted a forearm and hand sticking out of a drainage ditch while searching a wooded area north-west of Fauldhouse.

The court also heard that on January 10/11, police searching Mr Menzies' home found videos, including Queen of the Damned, and one of the Vampire Chroniclesbooks, Blood and Goldby Anne Rice, on which various passages had been hand written, many of them with misspellings.

Pages of the book were shown to the jury, including one on which had been written: "The blood is the life, I have drunk the blood and it shall be mine, for I have seen horror."

DC Robert Lowe said after his arrest on January 22nd the accused told him he expected to get "20 to 25 years".

Looking at his notes, DC Lowe, who had been driving the police car at the time, of the conversation, told the court: "He said: 'How do you think things will go today? I'm going to get 20 to 25 for this, for doing him with a hammer and my bowie knife. But I got his soul'."

The officer said his collegue, DC Marr who was in the back with the accused, cautioned him, but Mr Menzies went on to tell them: "I drank his blood and ate a bit of his head. There was blood everywhere, and I buried him up the woods."

Asked how he got the body there, Mr Menzies allegedly replied: "In my wheelie bin."

Dc Lowe said after they arrived in Linlithgow he noted down what had been said in the car.

"I noted in my book he made reference to four stab wounds to the rear of McKendrick's neck, that's what I remember, and that he used a kitchen knife and pushed it through his throat into the brain ... he buried the weapons far away from the body."

Mr Menzies also made reference to taking the body away in a wheelie bin at 2 a.m. on the Monday immediately after McKendrick had gone missing, DC Lowe added.

The officer also said that following that day's court appearance, while on the way to Saughton prison, Mr Menzies mentioned "he would plead guilty if he could get Carstairs", which the court heard was a state hospital.

Under cross-examination, DC Lowe agreed with Mr MacLeod that he was left "horror struck" by Mr Menzies' "grotesque" and "matter of fact" discussion.

The officer added that the accused had not appeared upset and was softly spoken.

PA