Questions mount over beheaded Tenerife Briton

Detectives in Tenerife are facing a barrage of questions amid reports a terrified British woman had begged for help just minutes before she was beheaded on the holiday island.

Grandmother-of-five Jennifer Mills-Westley sought refuge at an employment centre in Los Cristianos on Thursday morning where she told social services officials she was being followed.

A man was reportedly sent away from the area by a security guard before the tearful 60-year-old left the building. A police source said Ms Mills-Westley had waited until the man following her had disappeared but was then confronted again after she walked into the shop nearby.

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“He grabbed a large kitchen knife from the shelf and stabbed her at least 14 times in the neck without saying a word,” the source said. “Eventually he managed to sever her head. He picked it up and ran out.”

A 28-year-old homeless Bulgarian man with a police record was arrested as he allegedly fled the shopping centre carrying Mrs Mills-Westley’s head. Officers are investigating whether the suspect, named as Deyan Valentinov D, had been treated in a psychiatric ward.

The incident is believed to have been captured on CCTV and officers are viewing tapes.

Ms Mills-Westley’s family were struggling to come to terms with her brutal murder.

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Her daughter Sarah said: “Mum retired a number of years ago and was fully enjoying her retirement travelling between Tenerife and France where she spent time visiting her daughter and grandchildren, and her other daughter in Norfolk.”

Her ex-husband Peter said she was a “wonderful woman”.

Ms Mills-Westley, a retired road safety officer from Norwich, is understood to have owned two apartments in the Port Royale complex at Los Cristianos.

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