WHEN police searched the home of self-styled vampire Benjamin Lewis, they came across a blue exercise book which encapsulated his bizarre outlook on life.

Lewis, 25, bragged in an article he had published in a specialist occult magazine, under a pseudonym for the devil, how he had great trouble with most mortals because he was beyond their earthly understanding.

"To them I am a curse, an omen, a lost soul, a freak, all because I believe myself to be a reincarnated vampire.

"My soul can never die and the flame within my spirit cannot extinguish and I can offer any fantasy but humans are too blind with envy to see.''

Lewis, whose interest in the occult was sparked by a book of horror stories given to him by his parents as an impressionable young boy, was the instigator of a sickening three-month campaign made the life of a local vicar and his family a misery.

But yesterday Lewis, his lifelong friend Scott Bower, 26, and his six-month-pregnant girlfriend Natalie Gibson, 19, were found guilty of religious harassment - the first case of its kind in the country.

Lewis believed he was a reincarnated vampire who drank the blood of Bower and a former girlfriend.

The prosecution claimed the trio had howled outside the church of St Mary the Virgin, Eling, posted obscene images on the notice-board, targeted the vicarage with fireworks and made a series of nuisance calls including one with a toy teddy bear which emitted cackling laughter.

Occult symbols and candles including a five-pointed star, complete with a carved pumpkin head and still-burning candle, were also left outside the church.

The campaign became so intolerable that it drove "a wedge of fear" into the Rev Christopher Rowberry's family, causing them to suffer sleepless nights, and eventually led them and a parishioner to keeping a chronicle of the extraordinary abuse.

When police raided Lewis's home, they discovered a huge collection of vampire-related material including articles he had either written for or collected from occult magazine Crimson.

Bailing them for sentence, Judge John Boggis told the trio: "You have been convicted on overwhelming evidence of a sustained campaign of harassment against decent ordinary people who caused no trouble to you but were tolerant to you.

"It is your intolerance that was appalling. I am satisfied, Lewis, that your manipulation influenced the other two.

"You must expect custodial sentences. This was outrageous behaviour and it is disturbing. I hope you have seen the effect you have had on your victims who have recounted what you have been up to."

None of the three accused showed any emotion as the verdicts were returned by the jury who had retired for about 85 minutes.

PC Ivan Stigson, the officer in the case, told the Echo afterwards: "Today's decision by the jury will no doubt come as a great relief to Rev Rowberry and his family, who were subjected to a relentless and extremely distressing campaign of harassment for no other reason than that the defendants were hostile to the Christian religion.

"The conviction also serves to underline Hampshire Constabulary's committment to bringing to justice those who harass other members of the community for their beliefs. Such behaviour is utterly unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

Speaking on behalf of the vicar, Simon Barwood, the Bishop of Winchester's spokesman, expressed relief to all concerned in the case that justice had been done and a situation which had been difficult and occasionally harmful to the community had come to an end.

"We pray now, as we have all along, that this judgement will bring to Eling a harmonious environment in which all are able to follow their daily lives without hindrance - in and out of the church. It is also our hope that those who have found to be responsible for these events will be able to reflect on their actions in order to benefit in some way from the judgement.

"Not only Chris Rowberry but all of us in the Christian community at St Mary's would now ask for space to ourselves after what has been a difficult time for us all."

Lewis denied he was a satanist and identified himself with Jesus because he was also an outcast. Describing how he dressed in black gothic gear, he described himself as a "psychic vampire" who absorbed energy from other people, distancing himself from "the silly stuff about crosses and garlic", and was interested in spiritualism.

When Lewis was asked by his barrister Alexia Durran whether he roamed around churchyards at night, he replied with a smile, "No, I sleep in a bed."

Lewis, 25 and Gibson, both of Kinross Road, Rushington, Totton, and Bower, of School Road, Eling, will be sentenced on November 14. They had denied the charge.