Daughters seek answers over deranged killer

In February homeless Bulgarian drug addict Deyan Deyanov, 29, was sentenced to 20 years in a secure psychiatric unit on the holiday island after slaying Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60.

The horrific case was reported around the world after Deyanov – who had been sectioned in North Wales in 2010 under the Mental Health Act – attacked the victim while she was shopping in the resort of Los Cristianos in the Canary Islands, on May 13 2011.

Deyanov, a delusional drifter living rough in a derelict building on a Tenerife beach, used crack cocaine and LSD and built a shrine full of religious imagery.

His history of violence can be traced back to his hometown of Ruse, a city in northern Bulgaria known as the Little Vienna.

After leaving Bulgaria, he drifted all over Europe, staying in Edinburgh, North Wales and Ibiza. Released from North Wales care in October 2010 he travelled to Tenerife.

He believed he was Jesus Christ and on earth to create a new Jerusalem and heard voices commanding him to kill.

Well-known to police and social services on the island, he had been arrested at least four times between January and May 2011.

In January 2011 he committed a series of random violent attacks and was committed to La Candelaria hospital’s psychiatric unit, but was released on bail in early February.

Days before he killed Mrs Mills-Westley an arrest warrant was issued for him.

After his conviction, the victim’s two daughters Samantha Mills-Westley, 39, and Sarah Mills-Westley, 43, hit out at the authorities for their handling of Deyanov.

Tonight, in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, the sisters, who are calling for an independent review, meet the killer’s aunt in North Wales to ask if he received the right care.

Samantha says: “When he first got admitted, he was relatively well behaved, even though he was showing signs of having schizophrenic episodes, of talking to people who didn’t exist, telling his aunty that he was God.

“The second time he was admitted, she said that his behaviour had really becoming incredibly erratic. That he was becoming violent.”

Her sister tells the programme makers: “It appears that Deyanov left the hospital without a treatment plan and that the family had no idea that a) he had been released or that b) there was a mechanism of support that should have been released with him. It was really up to him to sort himself out.”

She adds: “We still haven’t got justice for our mum, and what’s really important for us now as a family is an independent review.”

The family know the North Wales health board conducted an internal inquiry into the care, but they were refused access to it. Instead, the sisters were told by letter that: “lessons have been learnt” yet the board will not say what those lessons are because of patient confidentiality.

Sarah said: “I now have to sit and write a letter to the man who beheaded my mother asking him for his permission to have access to his medical records. Bearing in mind I saw him in court, he is clearly delusional, he’s still hearing voices he’s a very sick man.

“And after the brutality of that attack against my mother he still has more rights than I do as a victim, and the rest of our family.”

The Health Board in Wales told the programme: “The Health Board is naturally deeply sympathetic to the predicament of the family of the deceased.

“Our detailed investigations ... are continuing and it would be premature to offer comment at this stage. Any response we are able to provide is, in any event, likely to be limited due to confidentiality restrictions imposed on us under the Data Protection Act. However, we can state categorically that the decision to discharge Mr Deyanov was in no way influenced by issues of funding or shortages of beds.”

The programmes airs at 8pm.