Killer of UK gran “inappropriately” diagnosed

A MAN who beheaded a British grandmother in Tenerife was released from a psychiatric unit when he was “inappropriately” diagnosed as feigning mental illness, a report claimed yesterday.

Deyan Deyanov was said to have paranoid schizophrenia. Picture: Getty

Homeless Bulgarian Deyan Deyanov, 30, launched a frenzied knife attack on 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley while she was shopping in the popular resort of Los Cristianos in the Canary Islands, Spain, on 13 
May 2011.

The drug addict was said to have been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time. He was sentenced last February to 20 years in a secure psychiatric unit in Seville after he was convicted of murder by a jury.

Deyanov was admitted to the psychiatric unit at Glan Clwyd Hospital, near Rhyl, North Wales, in 2010 while he stayed at a relative’s home in Flint but was released in October that year.

An independent report published by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) concluded there were “clear shortcomings” relating to the care provided to Deyanov in North Wales.

It added: “It is difficult to determine how these deficiencies may have directly influenced and led to the events of May 2011. However, we do believe that had the issues that we identify within the report been addressed, that the likelihood of such an incident occurring might have been significantly reduced.”

Deyanov’s aunt contacted police in June 2010 when she became concerned about his “strange behaviour” as he told people he was to become f­amous. This led to him being admitted to the hospital under the Mental Health Act.

He was admitted again in September that year after telling a police officer he thought he needed help but was discharged on 11 October after he was assessed as having no serious mental illness and was given the diagnosis of “malingering”.

Medics believed he was pretending to be ill to be given ­accommodation.

HIW said: “The diagnosis of malingering deemed Mr M as not having a serious mental illness. As a result he was deemed not to require secondary mental health services, a care co-ordinator, ongoing care and treatment planning or aftercare.”

The report, commissioned by the Welsh government after Ms Mills-Westley’s two daughters pressed for an inquiry, also noted that evidence of aggression from Deyanov was ignored.
Deyanov was well-known to police on Tenerife and had been arrested at least four times since January 2011 for violent offences.

He was sectioned at Tenerife’s La Candelaria hospital before being bailed in early February 2011.

A warrant for his arrest had been issued just three days before the killing but officers were unable to locate him.

After Deyanov’s trial, Sarah Mills-Westley, from Norwich, and sister Samantha, who lives in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France, said a ‘’catalogue of failings’’ by ‘’a number of authorities’’ led to their mother’s death.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which runs Glan Clwyd, yesterday apologised to the family. It said it had already made progress on some of the 19 recommendations for improvements in care advised by HIW.