Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Deyan
Valentinov DEYANOV
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics:
Homeless drug addict -
Random attack - Beheading
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: May 13, 2011
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: 1983
Victim profile:
Jennifer Joan Mills-Westley, 60
Method of murder:
Stabbing with a kitchen knife
Location: Tenerife,
Canary Islands, Spain
Status:
Sentenced
to detention in a psychiatric unit for 20 years on February 22,
2013
Jennifer Joan Mills-Westley was murdered on 13 May
2011 in Tenerife.
Her death in a supermarket in the resort of Los
Cristianos gained widespread publicity in the United Kingdom, where
she was from, and around the world, for the horrific nature of the
apparently random attack by a homeless man, who stabbed Mills-Westley
in the neck several times and then beheaded her, carrying her severed
head out into the street.
Deyan Deyanov, a Bulgarian man, was convicted on 22
February 2013 of the murder and subsequently sentenced to detention in
a psychiatric unit for 20 years.
Background
Mills-Westley was a 60-year-old grandmother of five
from Norwich, England, who had retired to the Spanish island of
Tenerife in 2006. She owned two apartments, each with two bedrooms, on
the Port Royale complex in Los Cristianos, one of which she rented to
tourists.
Murder
Mills-Westley's murder was widely publicised in the
British and international media due to its horrific nature, in which a
homeless man stabbed and beheaded her in a busy shop on Avenida Juan
Carlos in the town centre. Officials said the man appeared to choose
his victim at random, then stabbed her in the neck 14 times, beheaded
her, and carried her severed head out into the street.
The attack began at around 10:20 am when the man
suddenly started stabbing Mills-Westley without warning and with a
large knife, possibly a ceremonial samurai sword. He then cut off her
head, and carried it out into the street while shouting: "This is my
treasure," and "God is on earth." The man threw the head to the ground
and was tackled by a security guard before police arrived.
Suspect
Police later named the suspect as 28-year-old
unemployed Bulgarian Deyan Valentinov Deyanov. He was reported to have
lived rough in a semi-derelict beach house and had a police record for
violence towards strangers in the street. Three months prior to the
attack on Mills-Westley, he had been released from a psychiatric unit
at the Hospital de la Candelaria after a short stay following an
unprovoked attack on a security guard who had been patrolling the
seafront at Los Cristianos.
Two days prior to killing Mills-Westley, he was
briefly detained by police for harassing women at a nightclub in
nearby Playa de las Américas.
Although officials were initially quoted as saying
the attack was random, later reports in the British media suggested
that Mills-Westley had sought help in a nearby office just before she
was murdered, telling staff that she feared she was being followed by
a man who was then told to go away by a security guard.
In the years prior to the attack in Los Cristianos,
Deyanov was understood to have travelled between Edinburgh and
Bradford in the UK, Cyprus and Tenerife, and Flint in north Wales
where he had relatives. He had not returned to his family in Ruse,
Bulgaria, since stealing family money and possessions to pay for
addictions to heroin and gambling. In the summer of 2010 he spent some
time in a psychiatric unit at Glan Clwyd hospital in Bodelwyddan,
northeast Wales.
Trial
Deyanov was detained at a psychiatric unit and
charged with murder.
His trial at the provincial court in Santa Cruz
began on 18 February 2013 when a court was shown CCTV footage of the
attack. Deyanov denied murder, claiming insanity. The trial lasted one
week and on 22 February 2013 he was found guilty. He was subsequently
sentenced to detention in a psychiatric unit for 20 years, the maximum
applicable term.
Speaking after the conviction, Mills-Westley's
daughters said in a joint statement that their mother had "become
known as the lady who was beheaded in Tenerife, but the truth is she
was our mum, mentor and best friend, a highly gifted and selfless
person." They described her murder as "preventable and needless" and
said there had been a "catalogue of failings" in relation to the
handling of Deyanov as a mentally unstable man.
Wikipedia.org
Tenerife Beheading: Killer
Gets 20 Years
Bulgarian national Deyan Deyanov is sentenced for
killing British grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley in a supermarket
News.Sky.com
February 28, 2013
Bulgarian national Deyan Deyanov has
been sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric unit for killing British
grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley in a supermarket.
The 60-year-old was shopping in the quiet resort of
Los Cristianos when she was attacked by the homeless drug addict.
Deyanov had earlier asked a shopkeeper for a "big"
knife as he was planning to kill someone.
He then walked into the Mas Articulos Mejor Precios
shop where he repeatedly stabbed Ms Mills-Westley,
The 29-year-old Bulgarian then walked out of the
shop carrying her head.
His defence had argued that he was not criminally
responsible for his actions due to paranoid schizophrenia, but he was
found guilty by a jury of nine last week.
When asked by the magistrate if he had anything he
wanted to say, Deyanov answered through his interpreter: "I am the
second reincarnation of Jesus Christ and I will bring the fire of the
Holy Spirit to bear against this court."
A crack cocaine and LSD user, Deyanov was
well-known to police and a warrant for his arrest had been issued
three days prior to the killing.
Twice sectioned under the Mental Health Act, he had
spent time in Glan Clwyd hospital, North Wales, and Tenerife's La
Candelaria hospital before being bailed in February 2011.
Road safety officer Ms Mills-Westley had retired to
Tenerife in 2009 and owned two apartments in Los Cristianos.
In a statement issued after Deyanov was found
guilty, her family said: "Since May 13, 2011, Jennifer Mills-Westley
has become known as the lady who was beheaded in Tenerife.
"The truth is she was our mum, our mentor and our
best friend.
"She was a highly gifted, selfless person with so
much love in her heart and who has been taken away from us in her
prime."
'Why was monster freed to murder
our mother?' Family's agony as it emerges drug addict was released
from secure unit months before killing British expat
DailyMail.co.uk
February 22, 2013
The family of a British grandmother beheaded in
Tenerife has demanded to know why her killer was released from a UK
psychiatric unit only months before her barbaric murder.
Speaking yesterday after Bulgarian drug addict
Deyan Deyanov was found guilty of murdering Jennifer Mills-Westley in
May 2011, her daughters said the tragedy was ‘avoidable’ and their
mother had been let down by a ‘catalogue of failings’.
Deyanov, 29, a homeless Bulgarian, faces up to 20
years in a secure psychiatric unit. He killed Mrs Mills-Westley, 60,
then ran through the streets carrying her head.
A paranoid schizophrenic, he had been allowed to
leave a specialist unit in Wales seven months earlier.
The victim’s daughter Sarah, 43, read a statement
on behalf of her and sister Samantha, 39, outside the Spanish court,
saying: ‘It’s hard to put into words the devastating impact that this
preventable and needless act has had on us as a family, sadly Mum was
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘Lessons must be learnt from this tragic event to
ensure justice is done for our mum and to ensure that no other family
has to be subjected to this ordeal. It is clear to us that there has
been a catalogue of failings.’
‘We will be asking the Welsh health authority to
carry out a full inquiry.’
Drug-user Deyanov was sectioned under the Mental
Health Act and admitted to Glan Clwyd Hospital’s Ablett Psychiatric
Unit in North Wales in summer 2010.
But he left the unit in October that year and moved
to Tenerife, where his drug use and mental health problems worsened.
There was a warrant out for his arrest three days
before the murder but police failed to locate him.
Asked if there was anything he
wanted to say after the verdict was read out, Deyanov then declared to
a hushed courtroom: 'I am the second reincarnation of Jesus Christ and
I will bring the fire of the Holy Spirit to bear against this court.'
He carried out the attack in the popular resort of
Los Cristianos on May 13, 2011 in a shopping centre that was already
bustling with tourists of all nationalities.
The mother of two who split her time between homes
in Tenerife and Norwich, Norfolk, was picked at random after voices in
Deyanov's head ordered him to kill, the court heard.
But despite his schizophrenia, the jury found that
Deyanov was guilty of murder under Spanish law because he took his
victim by surprise and she could not defend herself.
Wearing an olive green hoodie, black tracksuit
trousers and running shoes, Deyanov remained quiet and still as the
verdict was read out.
The victim's daughters Samantha, 39, and Sarah, 43,
have attended the entire trial of their mother's killer since it began
on Monday. They were accompanied by Sarah’s partner Brian Moore, 41,
the victim’s brother John Smith, 63, and sister-in-law, Julie Smith,
62.
Reading the statement outside court, Sarah
Mills-Westley, who lives in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France said:
'Despite our expectations, we have been disappointed by the lack of
any other support - notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
our mum's MP in her hometown of Norwich.
'Whilst today closes one chapter, we will have to
live with the painful consequences for the rest of our lives.
'We ask that we are now granted privacy after an
extremely difficult and emotional week.'
Asked if the family would talk to authorities in
the UK to find out why Deyanov was released from hospital in Wales,
she said: 'We will be asking the Welsh Health Authority to conduct a
full inquiry into what happened in particular around his treatment in
the UK.'
Ms Mills-Westley said the care of people like
Deyanov should be taken more seriously.
She said: 'Since the May 13 2011, Jennifer
Mills-Westley has become known as the lady who was beheaded in
Tenerife.
'The truth is she was our mum, our mentor and our
best friend.
'She was a highly gifted, selfless person with so
much love in her heart and who has been taken away from us in her
prime.
'It’s hard to put into words the devastating impact
that this preventable and needless act has had on us as a family -
sadly mum was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
The family thanked the jury of nine for sitting
through the harrowing trial.
She added: 'But while today sees the conclusion of
the legal process, lessons must be learnt from this tragic event to
ensure justice is done for our mum and to ensure that no other family
has to be subjected to this ordeal.
'It is clear to us that there has been a catalogue
of failings - unfortunately it is now left to us to piece these
together as we still have so many unanswered questions.
'We would like to make a plea that the care of
people like Deyan Valentinov Deyanov is taken more seriously.
'He is a young man who has clearly been failed by a
number of authorities, in the UK, Spain and most likely others.'
Deyanov, who earlier claimed in court to be 'an
angel of Jesus Christ', had denied murder, claiming security camera
footage of him carrying out the gruesome murder was 'a montage'.
Answering questions in Bulgarian with the help of
an interpreter, Deyanov also told the court he is haunted by voices
which tell him how to act.
He claimed they were telling him he was 'an angel
of Jesus Christ who is going to create a new Jerusalem', adding: 'They
direct how I act, sometimes they say kill, fight, hit, pray.'
Prosecutor Angel Garcia Rodriguez asked for the
maximum sentence of 20 years in a secure psychiatric ward to be
imposed.
Defence lawyer Francisco Beltran said the former
timeshare dealer should get the minimum sentence of 15 years, saying
Deyanov was 'a sick man who requires help'.
He has blamed Spanish authorities for the murder,
telling the court: 'He might as well have been carrying a sign saying
"I'm a bomb and I could explode at any moment",' defence lawyer
Francisco Beltran said.
'Responsibility must fall to some extent with the
health authorities in the Canary Islands,' he added.
'My client is a sick man, not a criminal, and he
should have been diagnosed and treated.
'Why was he not diagnosed and treated properly? He
was suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia. Why was he released?'
Deyanov, a Bulgarian immigrant who took crack
cocaine and LSD, was arrested several times for outbursts of violence
in the months leading up to the murder.
After one arrest he was admitted on January 18 in
2011 to a psychiatric unit at the island's Candalaria hospital.
But he was released on February 4, despite
suffering from serious mental health problems.
Earlier the jury heard Deyanov killed her by
slashing her throat from behind with the knife, meant for cutting
Spanish ham.
She died within seconds but he then spent up to
five minutes removing her head, a pathologist said.
Angel Perez Martinez told the jury Deyanov used
'great force' to sever the head with 'a practically uncountable number
of cuts. It is very difficult to remove a head with a knife of this
sort,' he said.
'It would have taken minutes - three, four, five
minutes.'
Mrs Mills-Westley also had cuts on her hands where
she had tried in vain to fight off her attacker, he said.
Deyanov's DNA was also found under her fingernails,
the court heard.
Judge Maria Jesus Garcia Sanchez will sentence
Deyanov, the son of a millionaire former communist party chief, at a
later date.
Deyanov had denied murder. His defence had argued
he was not criminally responsible for his actions because he suffers
acute paranoid schizophrenia.
He faces a sentence of 15 to 20 years in a
psychiatric unit. Deyanov’s sentence will be announced in a written
statement in the coming weeks.
His victim, a retired road safety worker originally
from Norwich, was attacked while she was in a Chinese-owned general
store near the beach.
That morning, Deyanov had walked into another shop
and asked for a knife 'this big' because he was going to kill someone.
At 10.30am he went into the Mas Articulos Mejor
Precios shop on Avenida Juan Carlos I, picked up a 22cm-long knife and
plunged it repeatedly into Ms Mills-Westley's neck.
He then walked out carrying her head, to the horror
of onlookers, before being wrestled to the ground and arrested.
Living rough in Los Cristianos, the crack cocaine
and LSD user was well-known to police on the island and had been
arrested at least four times since January 2011 for violent offences.
A warrant for his arrest had been issued just three
days before the killing but officers were unable to locate him.
He had previously been sectioned in the summer of
2010 under the Mental Health Act in Glan Clwyd Hospital, North Wales,
and again at Tenerife's La Candelaria hospital before being bailed in
early February 2011.
Tenerife Beheading: Court Shown
CCTV Footage
A Bulgarian man denies murdering a 60-year-old
British woman decapitated in a shop, saying he is suffering from
schizophrenia
News.Sky.com
February 18, 2013
The family of British woman who was decapitated in a supermarket in
Tenerife have seen CCTV footage of the attack for the first time.
Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60, was stabbed and
decapitated with a nine-inch carving knife in the popular resort of
Los Cristianos on May 13, 2011.
Bulgarian Deyan Deyanov, who is homeless, has
denied murder and told the court he is haunted by voices telling him
how to act.
The defence has said he is suffering from "acute
schizophrenia".
After watching the CCTV footage, Deyanov said it
was "a montage, a film" and claimed he did not recognise himself in
the images.
Ms Mills-Westley's daughters, Sarah Mears, 43, and
Samantha Gomes, 39, were in court as the footage was shown. Mrs Gomes
covered her mouth in horror.
Giving evidence, Mrs Mears explained that in the
months before her death, her mother had become worried about safety on
the island.
"It was nothing specific but she was increasingly
concerned that Tenerife was not as safe as when we used to visit 30
years ago," she said.
Mrs Mears added: "All I want to see is justice done
for my mum today."
Ms Mills-Westley, who is originally from Norwich,
had been living in Tenerife after retiring from her job as a road
safety officer with Norfolk County Council.
Deyanov is alleged to have walked into another shop
before the attack to ask for a large knife.
The court was told that after killing Ms
Mills-Westley, the 29-year-old was apparently heard saying "God is on
earth" before he was captured by security guards as he ran out of the
store holding her head.
The jury was shown two knives allegedly used in the
attack. Both were 22cm long and one was visibly bent and bloodied.
Franciso Beltran, for the defence, told the jury
his client was in "total disagreement" with the charge of murder
against him.
"He has committed no crime, and it goes without
saying that he has not committed the crime of murder," Mr Beltran
said.
He asked the jury see his client as a "sick man"
who had been living on the streets without a diagnosis or treatment
for his acute schizophrenia.
Deyanov claimed the voices were telling him he was
"an angel of Jesus Christ who is going to create a new Jerusalem".
"They direct how I act, sometimes they say kill,
fight, hit, pray," he said.
The defendant said he had been using crack cocaine
and LSD before his arrest, but had no memory of living in Tenerife.
Asked if he knew he was on the island after being
brought there from a psychiatric unit in Seville on the Spanish
mainland, he said: "I have just found out."
He also denied that he had lived in Wales, where he
was sectioned in the summer of 2010 under the Mental Health Act at
Glan Clwyd Hospital.
Last week Ms Mears and Mrs Gomes said they were
attending the trial in order to come "face to face" with the killer
and hope to banish memories which have been "shrouded by the brutality
of her death".
The trial is expected to conclude on February 25.
Tenerife beheading: killer copied
Predator film
The man accused of beheading a British grandmother
on the holiday island of Tenerife last Friday was obsessed with the
sci-fi film Predator and its decapitations, a friend claimed
Telegraph.co.uk
May 17, 2011
Deyan Deyanov, 28, enjoyed the way the alien
creature hunted and beheaded its victims and had tattoos of characters
from its fictional language on his right arm.
Deyanov hacked to death Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60,
in a supermarket after the Spanish legal system had released him from
a psychiatric unit on bail, despite police warning he was a danger to
the public.
After an unprovoked attack on a security guard, a
warrant was issued for his arrest but he killed before he was found.
It has emerged that the homeless Bulgarian, who was
a habitual cannabis smoker, made a short video on his mobile phone
four years ago in which he said: "I don't like human beings."
After cutting off Mrs Mills-Westley's head, Deyanov
reportedly paraded it through the street.
On May 10 magistrate Nelson Diaz Frias had issued a
warrant for the arrest of Deyan Deyanov, 28, after he failed to meet
bail conditions following an attack in which he bashed out his
victim's front teeth with a rock.
The unprovoked assault on a night security guard
patrolling the beach front in the popular resort of Los Cristianos
took place on January 4.
When Deyanov was arrested for that crime he boasted
to police that he was "a prophet of God on earth" and was "planning
something big".
According to a local source a police report
labelled him as "a dangerous individual who should be kept off the
streets".
He was sent to a psychiatric unit at the Nuestra
Senora de Candalaria hospital in the island's capital Santa Cruz but
was later released on bail, a decision made by the magistrate after
consulting doctors.
The Bulgarian was supposed to report to the court
every fortnight but failed to show up and the magistrate of Court of
Instruction number four in Arona issued the arrest warrant on May 10.
But police failed to locate the man, a habitual
drug user who gave his address as the harbour-side promenade of the
busy resort.
In fact, he regularly spent the night in a derelict
building on the beach in front of the promenade and was well known in
the area for his aggressive behaviour towards tourists.
Jose Albert Gonzalez Reveron, the mayor of Arona,
the municipal area that includes Los Cristianos, said more efforts
should have been made to detain Deyanov.
"This person was well known to police and had been
involved in very many altercations," he said.
"I don't dare to talk about police negligence, but
everyone would like him to have been detained earlier. He should have
been in a psychiatric hospital."
Manuel Reveron, councillor for security at the town
hall, said: "Police were actively searching for Deyanov but they were
unable to locate him because he had no fixed address.
"In my opinion he should not have been released
from the psychiatric hospital following the earlier attack."
"We carried out our obligations and we handed him
over to the court, we don't know what happened next. If it had been
dealt with differently this terrible crime could have been avoided."
A spokesman for the Nuestra Senora de Candelaria
hospital confirmed that Deyanov had been a patient but refused to
comment further citing confidentiality reasons.
Deyanov appeared before investigating magistrate
Carmen Rosa del Pino at the Court of Instruction number two in Arona
on Saturday night, provisionally charged with murder.
He is being held in the psychiatric unit of
Tenerife II prison undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
The body of Mrs Mills-Westley, who had lived on the
island for at least ten years, is expected to be repatriated to the UK
this week.
The retired road safety officer was a mother of two
daughters and had five grandchildren.
Graffiti, beer cans and a
makeshift shrine to Jesus: Inside the sordid squat of killer who
beheaded grandmother in Tenerife shop
DailyMail.co.uk
May 16, 2011
The maniac who decapitated a British grandmother
and paraded her head through the streets of Tenerife lived in squalor
in a filthy derelict squat.
Bulgarian Deyan Valentinov Deyanov, 28, shared the
ramshackle one-storey house on Los Cristianos beach with a group of
squatters.
The foul property stank of urine and was littered
with old mattresses and empty beer cans.
Inside there was a peculiar shrine to Jesus which
had been made out of breeze block - and there was a charred copy of
the bible.
The 28-year-old who killed grandmother Jennifer
Mills-Westley, 60, would walk round the popular tourist town shouting
that he had been ‘sent by God to carry out his justice on earth,’
residents said.
He was today remanded in custody by a Spanish
court.
His filthy residence was cluttered with boxes and
had graffiti daubed on the walls which had their paint flaking off.
Squatters had to step over the sleeping Bulgarian
to bed down for the night.
According to locals, his behaviour had become
increasingly terrifying in recent days and he had been shouting at
tourists.
A woman calling herself Fabiana, who works at the
Miami Beach Bar, said: ‘Everybody knew he was crazy. He used to stand
on the beach here shouting imaginary conversations with God.
‘He was getting worse and worse, really scaring
people over the past few days. He would say to people, “I am God and
I’m going to strike you down. I’m going to destroy you”.’
A bar owner, whose business overlooks the building,
said: ‘The house is truly disgusting and the squatters should be
thrown out.
‘The Bulgarian has been living there with some
other homeless people for some time. We’ve said for a long time the
local authorities should throw them out.’
He had been following grandmother Jennifer
Mills-Westley, from Norwich, Norfolk, in the minutes before she was
murdered.
Police believe Deyanov picked his victim completely
at random.
Tragically, the retired road safety officer thought
she had got away from him when he struck as she walked into a
supermarket.
She asked for help in a social security office in the busy Los
Cristianos resort.
Staff said she was in tears and looked frightened.
But she left after security guards checked the street and said the
coast was clear.
Deyanov stabbed her 14 times in the neck with a
kitchen knife before running out with her severed head. The blade was
found in a bag Deyanov was carrying when he was tackled and
overpowered a few minutes later.
A source at the National Police in Tenerife said:
‘We have been told Deyanov was following his victim on Friday morning,
that she went into a social security office asking for help and saying
she was very scared.
‘She waited in the office until he disappeared. She
walked into the Chinese-owned shop nearby and he followed her in.’
The police source said her killer than grabbed a
large kitchen knife from a shelf and stabbed her at least 14 times in
the neck without saying a word.
‘Eventually he managed to sever her head
completely, he picked it up and ran out of the shop,’ he said, adding
it was ‘without doubt one of the most gruesome crimes we have seen in
Tenerife’.
Ms Mills-Westley had Spanish residency and lived in
Tenerife but often travelled to Norfolk and France to visit her
daughters and grandchildren.
Her ex-husband Peter, who now lives in Ireland,
said his former wife was ‘a wonderful woman, a brilliant mother and I
loved her very dearly’.
One of her two daughters, Sarah Mears, a business
consultant who lives with her husband Barry near Norwich, said the
family was devastated.
She said in a statement that her mother was ‘fully
enjoying her retirement’. She added: ‘She was full of life, generous
of heart, would do anything for anyone.
‘We now have to find some way of living without her
love and light.’
Ms Mills-Westley’s other daughter, Samantha Gomes,
is understood to live in the Midi-Pyrenees area of France.
Deyanov is said to have had a history of violent
crimes. In February he was released from a psychiatric hospital
following an earlier random attack in Los Cristianos.
Deyanov was last night being held in a police
station at the nearby resort of Playa de las Americas. He is expected
to appear before a magistrate on Monday.
The police source said: ‘For all intents and
purposes the police investigation has already finished. There were
witnesses and we found the bloodied knife in a bag at his side when he
was arrested. We have taken CCTV footage from the shop.’
Ms Mills-Westley owns two first-floor flats worth
£240,000 in Port Royale, a whitewashed, hilltop development of 300
flats overlooking the sea and the port of Los Cristianos. She rented
one of the flats out to holidaymakers.
Coleen Rooney’s family have a flat just half a mile from Ms
Mills-Westley’s apartment.
Frank Clydesdale, the chairman of the residents’
committee, said: ‘She was a charming lady, a joy to know.
‘This is the kind of place where you don’t stick
your nose into other people’s business but you always say hello and
have a chat.
‘She has been here a long time and always been very
nice. It’s just such a dreadful thing.’
Norfolk County Council said Ms Mills-Westley had
worked as a road safety officer there until about 15 years ago.
A spokesman said she had been a ‘popular and well
respected’ member of staff and had worked with many schools and
children to teach cycling safety.
Yesterday the shop where Ms Mills-Westley was
murdered, named Shung, had reopened and was still selling a selection
of large kitchen knives including cleavers.
Judge detains man accused of
beheading UK woman
BBC.co.uk
May 15, 2011
A Bulgarian man accused of
stabbing and beheading a UK woman in a shop on Tenerife has been
detained in prison.
Deyan Valentinov Deyanov, 28, was sent to jail by a
judge on Sunday following his arrest on suspicion of killing Jennifer
Mills-Westley, 60.
A note issued by the court said he should have no
possibility of bail.
Mrs Mills-Westley, originally from Norfolk, had
sought help minutes before the attack in Los Cristianos on Friday,
according to media reports.
The Sunday Times said she told staff in an
employment centre she was being followed and security guards told a
man to go away.
'Absolutely
devastating'
Thinking he had disappeared, the
grandmother-of-five then walked to a nearby shop where she was stabbed
before being beheaded, the paper said.
The Daily Telegraph website reports that the man
accused of killing her was ordered to be detained in a psychiatric
unit.
One of Mrs Mills-Westley's two daughters, Sarah,
said she was "full of life, generous of heart and would do anything
for anyone".
"We now have to find a way of living without her
love and light and we would ask at this difficult time for some
privacy as we try to come to terms with our loss," she said.
She said her mother was enjoying her retirement,
travelling between Tenerife and France and visiting her other daughter
in Norfolk.
Ms Mills-Westley retired to Tenerife after working
as a road safety officer at Norfolk County Council.
Leader of the council Derrick Murphy said the news
was "absolutely devastating" for those who used to work with her.
"We offer our sincere and deepest sympathies to
Jenny's friends and family, in particularly her two daughters and five
grandchildren," he said.
Silent attack
"As you can imagine, the terrible news obviously
has come as a great shock to us... she was an incredibly
well-respected member of the staff."
Ms Mills-Westley's former neighbour, Stella Watts,
said she was a "kind, lovely lady" who used to take her to hospital to
visit her sick partner.
Local officials have been analysing CCTV footage of
the attack which shows a man walking into the supermarket - which
sells Chinese food and tourist souvenirs.
Witnesses said the man attacked the woman without
saying a word.
Local councillor Manuel Reveron said: "The man
entered the shop and then cut this woman's neck and took the head in
his hand outside,"
A security guard then managed to wrestle the man to
the ground, he said.
In a video posted on YouTube, Colin Kirby of
Tenerifemagazine.com said security guards held down the suspect until
the police arrived.
Christina Perez, a legal representative at a nearby
court, said she and her colleagues ran indoors for safety.
"Everybody is shocked. It's a very safe area. You
can usually go anywhere you want in the day or at night. This is
really not normal."
Dominica Fernandez, of the Regional Interior
Ministry, said the attack appeared to be random and that the suspect
was well known in the area.
Regional newspaper La Opinion said the suspect had
received treatment at the psychiatric unit of a local hospital in
February after being involved in previous violent incidents.
The BBC's Maddy Savage said this kind of violence
was extremely rare in the Canary Islands which attract more than 10
million tourists each year.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are in touch
with the next of kin and are providing consular assistance.
"Consular officials in Tenerife are in contact with
local authorities about this tragic incident and our condolences go
out to the family at this difficult time."
Deyan Deyanov (28) decapitated a random woman in
a supermarket and fled with her head
MyDeathSpace.com
May 17, 2011
A deranged knifeman decapitated a British woman in
a supermarket on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife on Friday and
fled with her head, media said.
The man, said to be a 28-year-old vagrant known in
the area, apparently picked his victim at random in a Chinese
supermarket, said media quoting witnesses and the national police.
The man, of Bulgarian nationality, was caught while
fleeing, according to online newspapers and radio reports, which could
not be immediately confirmed by the police.
"A man came running up with something full of blood
in his hand and a private security guard behind him, and he threw it
on the ground and it almost hit me," a witness named only as Bernardo
told Cadena Ser radio.
"What he had in his hand was a head."
The victim was reportedly a 60-year-old British
woman who worked in the supermarket in the tourist spot of Los
Cristianos beach in Arona on the southern side of Tenerife, part of
the Canary Islands.
The attacker shouted out: "God is on Earth,"
according to local news site CanariasalDia.com, quoting Arona's mayor,
Jose Alberto Gonzalez Reveron.
The attacker lived in a "semi-abandoned" house, the
mayor said.
Canary Islands political representative Dominica
Fernandez was quoted by the news site as saying that the killer was
disturbed and had chosen his victim at random.
Spain's main daily El Pais said the attack occurred
at 10:30 am (08:30 GMT) in the supermarket, which forms part of the
Valdes Centre shopping centre of Arona.
The attacker had a record of arrests for assault
and was detained by police as he struggled to escape from a security
guard, the paper said. The killer did not speak to his victim, it
added.
Other news reports said the man had been in a
psychiatric hospital for violence.
In London, a Foreign Office official said it had
been informed of the attack. "We are aware of reports of the death of
a British national in Tenerife and are urgently investigating," she
said.
Tenerife is home to around one million residents
and one of Spain's most popular tourist destinations.
British woman beheaded in
Tenerife supermarket
Man ran into supermarket on Spanish island, grabbed
knife, killed woman then rushed out carrying head
By Giles Tremlett and Karen McVeigh -
Guardian.co.uk
May 13, 2011
A man has killed and beheaded a British woman in a
supermarket on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
The suspect, a 28-year-old unemployed Bulgarian
man, attacked the unnamed 60-year-old woman with a knife and then fled
into the street with the severed head in his hands, according to
eyewitnesses. Police have identified the alleged killer as Deyan
Valentinov D., but have not released a surname.
Colin Kirby, a reporter for Tenerife Magazine,
explained what he had seen as he walked past the shop, in Los
Cristianos, Arona, which is situated on the southern point of the
island at around 10.30 am.
He said he had spoken to an English couple who were
in the shop at around 10.30am when the incident happened.
"They said this guy just walked in, pulled a big
knife and started stabbing at her."
He added: "I didn't see the attack but I saw the
guy. I was walking past the commercial centre and I saw a small group
of people outside. There was a guy from the medical centre going down
the ramp and I thought perhaps someone had fainted.
"I heard people shouting and screaming and making a
commotion. A Hispanic looking guy, very scruffy, was walking behind me
muttering to himself, carrying what I thought was a joke head by the
hair, with blood.
"It made me think of Clash of The Titans, gorgons.
I thought … it's a joke'. The man was in his late 20s … He was a bit
dishevelled, unwashed, he was wearing a jumper and trousers, when
everyone else is wearing shorts. Even at 10.30 in the morning, it's
boiling."
Kirby said that the man ran off as security guards
and others chased after him.
"Security guards rushed from the shop where he'd
been, chased him across the road and by this time he was pinned to the
floor. By this time he was empty-handed and was on the other side of
the road."
"The security and the police had to hold people off
– they were queueing up – they were trying basically to kick the hell
out of the guy."
Los Cristianos has a large expat British community.
A witness told the radio broadcaster Cadena Ser
that he saw the man drop the head on the pavement after coming out of
the shop.
"I parked my car and saw a man running out with
something bloody in his hands and a security guard chasing him. He
threw it to the ground. It almost hit me.
"What he had been carrying was a woman's head."
Araceli Perez, 33, who works for Ocean Properties,
said the victim was British but of Chinese ancestry. "[The killer] was
running away with her head in his hands," she said. Tenerife media
were saying the killer had previous convictions for violence, she
added.
The Foreign Office said that not all the woman's
family had been informed and they could not comment other than to
confirm that she had died. "We are aware that a British national has
died in Tenerife," it said.
José Alberto González, the mayor, said the attack
did not appear to be premeditated and had been recorded on the
supermarket's security cameras. A regional interior ministry delegate,
Dominica Fernández, said the suspect was believed to have entered the
shop and stolen a knife, which he then used to behead the woman. The
attack appeared to be random.
Police are investigating to see if the victim and
the killer knew one another.
