Graffiti, beer cans and a makeshift shrine to Jesus: Inside the sordid squat of killer who beheaded grandmother in Tenerife shop

Bulgarian man remanded in custody by Spanish court over killing

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.

Squalid: The derelict house where Deyanov has been living 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

Tragedy: Mother-of-two Mrs Mills-Westley who was decapitated in the Tenerife supermarket 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.

Shrine: The makeshift home Deyanov lived in also featured an altar made from breeze blocks and a collection of books

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’.

Horror: The man lies on the ground after being tackled by security guards as he ran down the street

Wrestled to the ground: The man had been running through the town brandishing the woman's head before being tackled by a motorcyclist

The Bulgarian is apprehended by police after Mrs Mills-Westley's killing

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.



Family album: Jennifer Mills-Westley with her daughter Sarah on her wedding day

Celebration: Mrs Mills-Westley smiles as she poses for family photographs at her daughter's wedding

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.



Business as usual: The shop where Mrs Mills-Westley was attacked was trading again less than 24 hours after the killing

This is the shop where the British woman was decapitated on Friday. Yesterday it had opened its doors again

Murder scene: The shop was described as a 'cheap' store. It had been claimed that the murder weapon the knifeman used could have come from the shop

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.

Ex-pat: Jennifer Mills-Westley's Tenerife 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.

