Jury watch CCTV footage of Bulgarian drug addict who ‘decapitated British grandmother in Tenerife supermarket claiming voices in his head told him to kill, fight, hit and pray’
- Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60, was killed in Los Cristianos resort in May 2011
- Bulgarian Deyan Deyanov, 29, standing trial in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
- Claims voices ‘direct’ him how to act, telling him to ‘kill, fight, hit, pray’
- Daughters shown harrowing CCTV footage of moment mother was killed
- Deyanov had taken on crack cocaine and LSD before arrest, court hears
Footage: CCTV footage of the fatal attack on 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley was shown in court. After being shown the video, Deyan Deyanov, who is accused of beheading the grandmother, said it was ‘a montage, a film’ and claimed that he did not recognise himself in the images
The Bulgarian drug-addict accused of beheading a British grandmother in a busy supermarket in Tenerife claimed voices told him to ‘kill and fight’, as CCTV footage of the horrific attack was played in court.
Deyan Deyanov declared to a packed courtroom that he was an ‘angel of Jesus Christ’, moments after the victim’s heart-broken daughter covered her mouth in horror as the court was shown the chilling images.
Deyanov is charged with stabbing and decapitating 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley with a nine-inch ham-slicing knife in front of horrified shoppers in the town of Los Cristianos on May 13 2011.
The blood-soaked 29-year-old was then tackled by security guards as he ran out of the supermarket brandishing the mother-of-two’s severed head and shouting wildly.
But appearing in court for the first time today, the drug addict – who was high on crack cocaine and LSD when he was arrested – claimed he had no recollection of ever even living in Tenerife, let alone murdering Ms Mills-Westley.
Denying the murder, he said: ‘I didn’t commit this crime. I am a very peaceful person. I didn’t cut off her head. I don’t remember anything.’
He claimed they were telling him he was ‘an angel of Jesus Christ who is going to create a new Jerusalem’.
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In the dock: Deyan Deyanov is accused of stabbing and beheading 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley with a nine-inch ham-slicing knife in front of horrified shoppers in Los Cristianos on May 13 2011
‘They direct how I act, sometimes they say kill, fight, hit, pray,’ he said.
He made the claims on the first day of his trial at the Provincial Court in Santa Cruz, attended by both of Ms Mills-Westley’s daughters, Sarah Mears, 43, and Samantha Gomes, 38.
Also at the court were Jennifer Mills-Westley’s brother John Smith, 63, and sister-in-law, Julie Smith, 62.
As the jury was shown ‘tough’ CCTV footage relating to the attack, Mrs Gomes covered her mouth in horror and stared into the distance.
Heartbroken family: Samantha (third left) and Sarah Mears (right), daughters of beheaded grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley, arrive with other relatives at the Provincial Court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the trial of their mother’s alleged killer
Business as usual: The shop where Mrs Mills-Westley was attacked was trading again less than 24 hours after the killing
Giving evidence later, Mrs Mears said: ‘All I want to see is justice done for my mum today.’
After watching the CCTV footage, Deyanov said it was ‘a montage, a film’ and claimed that he did not recognise himself in the images.
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 in Tenerife after being brought there from a psychiatric unit in Seville on the Spanish mainland, he said: ‘I have just found out.’
Amateur footage: After watching the CCTV footage, Deyanov said it was ‘a montage, a film’ and claimed that he did not recognise himself in the images
Tackled to the ground: 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
Happy family: Ms Mills-Westley at her daughter Sarah’s wedding
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.
Later, the jury was shown two ‘ham knives’ allegedly used in the attack. Both were 22cm long, and one was visibly bent and bloodied.
Prosecutor Angel Garcia Rodriguez told the court of the moment the frenzied attack took place inside a Chinese-owned shop on Avenida Juan Carlos.
THE RETIRED GRANDMOTHER WHO DIED ‘LIVING TO THE FULL IN SPAIN’S ETERNAL SPRING’
Jennifer Mills-Westley was described by her family as someone who was ‘full of life, generous of heart and would do anything for anyone’.
The 60-year-old was a mother of two daughters – Sarah and Sam – and grandmother of five who was living life to the full in the ‘eternal spring’ of the Canary Islands.
Originally from Norwich, Norfolk, she had worked as a road safety officer with Norfolk County Council.
In that role, Ms Mills-Westley taught schoolchildren cycling safety training and she was described by colleagues as ‘popular and well-respected’.
She had retired and settled in Tenerife, where she owned two apartments in the Port Royale complex on the hillside edge of Los Cristianos.
One two-bedroom flat was rented out while she lived in the other and had been resident there for at least 10 years.
Neighbours described her as ‘quiet and peaceful and always immaculately dressed’.
With one of her daughters living in France and the other in Norwich, she enjoyed travelling to pay visits to her family.
In a poignant tribute following her death, her ex-husband Peter told The Mail on Sunday she was a ‘wonderful woman, a brilliant mother and I loved her dearly.’
Mr Garcia Rodriguez said: ‘The accused approached Jennifer Mills-Westley, who he did not know and who was shopping, attacking and striking her repeatedly with a knife in her back and neck until she was completely decapitated.’
He said the prosecution was seeking for Deyanov to be sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric unit.
Witness Davide Balsamo, an Italian who has lived in Tenerife for five years, described the moment he stumbled upon the horrific scene coming out of a hardware store.
He said: ‘I saw a guy walking around with a head in his hand.
‘I came out of the shop and suddenly I saw him come off the kerb, completely covered in blood.
‘I ran up to him and hit him with all my strength using my motorcycle helmet and knocked him silly.’
Asked if the defendant was the man he had struck, he said ‘yes’, adding that his hair was a bit longer now.
Ms Mills-Westley, originally from Norwich, Norfolk, had been living in Tenerife after retiring from her job as a road safety officer with Norfolk County Council.
Her daughters, Sarah and Sam, said last week they will attend the trial to come ‘face to face’ with her killer and hope to banish memories which have been ‘shrouded by the brutality of her death’.
In a joint statement they said: ‘On Friday May 13 2011 our lives changed irrevocably when we heard the shocking news that our much loved mother had been brutally murdered in Tenerife.
‘Now, nearly two years later, we will come face to face with the man who took her life that day and relive the heart-breaking details of the events leading up to her untimely death.
‘Going back to Tenerife not only is a daunting prospect but it will reopen our wounds.
‘We have to hope that justice will prevail so we can lay our mother to rest, and remember her in happier times rather than the memories we currently have – memories which are shrouded by the brutality of her death.’
Drug-addled drifter: Deyanov was a drifter who had lived in Tenerife and Wales where in 2010 he was sectioned under the mental health act
Deyanov reportedly had a history of mental illness which had seen him sectioned in the UK, where he had lived, and in the Canary Islands.
In the summer of 2010 he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act at Glan Clwyd Hospital in North Wales.
He had been released from a local hospital in February 2011 following psychiatric treatment, according to regional newspaper La Opinion.
Victim’s home: The Port Royale complex in Las Christianos where Ms Mills-Westley lived
And a Spanish judge had issued a search and arrest order for him before the killing for his alleged involvement in a fight where he appeared to be on drugs.
His defence is expected to argue that he was not criminally responsible for Ms Mills-Westley’s death because of his mental condition.
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