Family of Jennifer Mills-Westley speak publically for the first time

13 May 2013

In 2011, Jennifer Mills-Westley, a 60-year-old British grandmother, was attacked and publicly beheaded in broad daylight in Tenerife.  Her murder was reported across the world.

What is less well known is that her killer had twice been admitted to an NHS psychiatric unit in Wales and twice released, the last time just months before the killing.

Channel 4 Dispatches follows Jennifer's two daughters in their quest for answers, both in the UK and Tenerife.

At the family’s request, the judge in Tenerife has allowed our cameras into court to film the trial of a murder that shocked the world.

For the first time, the victim’s daughters, Sarah and Sam, speak out to ask: how the authorities across Europe, failed to stop their mother’s killer?

Murdered in Tenerife, airing tonight (Monday 13th May at 8pm) reveals: 

• Jennifer Mills-Westley murderer, Deyan Deyanov was detained and released from a psychiatric unit at least three times, twice in the UK and once in Tenerife
• Seven months prior to the killing, Deyanov lived in the UK. In 2010 he was detained in the Ablett psychiatric unit in Denbighshire, north Wales on two separate occasions
• In a meeting with Deyanov’s aunt – living in North Wales - Jennifer Mills-Westley daughters learned that his condition had deteriorated on release from the Ablett psychiatric unit.  Sarah says:  “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.”
• Jennifer Mills-Westley family were refused access to an internal inquiry by the Health Board in north Wales and told that to find out more about Deyanov’s care in Wales, they need his written consent.  Sarah says: “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. That cannot be right”
• In a court testimony from the murderer, Deyanov, denied carrying out the attack and claimed: "I am Jesus Christ. I’ve come to create a New Jerusalem"
• Deyanov’s defence lawyer criticises both the Spanish and UK authorities for not protecting the public from his client.  In his summary he says:  “My client is sorry for what he has done.  He is incapacitated.  He is a sick man.  Because he is mentally unfit other people should be held responsible.   He might as well have been holding up a sign saying ‘I am a bomb and at any moment I could explode’.  If they had acted, then the victim would still be here.  Why was he not detained? Why did they not do more?”
• Jennifer Mills-Westley family call for an independent review

Jennifer Mills Westley in her family’s words

Jennifer Mills-Westley, a 60-year-old British grandmother, enjoyed spending time in Tenerife after she retired.

Her daughters Sam and Sarah describe their mother as a vibrant and loving lady who enjoyed the sunny lifestyle on the island.  

Sam says:  “Mum was a very vibrant, fit, bubbly, sensational woman: our best friend, a fabulous grandmother.”

Sarah says: “She just loved life, she just liked to have a bit of a giggle, she loved the sun and she loved Tenerife.”

What happened on that tragic day?

On the 13th May 2011, Jennifer, had been busy preparing for her daughter Sarah’s visit.

Sarah says: “On that day Mum would have bounced out of bed, because she was an early morning person, gone in to town, to do some final shopping for our holiday”.

On the morning of the attack Deyan Deyanov, a drifter who suffered from schizophrenia, was captured on CCTV in a shop indicating the size of knife he was looking for. 

Jennifer was in a nearby DIY shop and then moved into the supermarket, where she was browsing the aisles.

By now Deyanov was in the supermarket, holding two knives. He attacked Jennifer, stabbing her repeatedly in the neck until he decapitated her. He then ran out on to the street carrying her head.

Channel 4 Dispatches follows Jennifer's two daughters as they return to the island for the trial of their mother’s killer.

Who is Deyan Deyanov?

Bulgarian National Deyan Deyanov, aged 29, was an habitual drug user and a drifter. Travelling regularly between different countries, he picked up casual work as he went.

Seven months prior to killing Jennifer Mills Westley, Deyanov was living in the UK. He was staying with an aunt and uncle in Flint, North Wales, and it was here that he first came to the attention of the UK Mental Health Services. 

He was detained in the Ablett psychiatric unit in Denbighshire on two separate occasions.

The first time, in June 2010, he discharged himself. The second time - just a few weeks later - the hospital discharged him. 

Soon afterwards he left the UK and boarded a plane to Tenerife.

Within weeks of arriving in Tenerife, having been discharged by the psychiatric unit in the UK, Deyanov smashed a rock in a stranger’s face, then crawled away on all fours.

The sisters have discovered that three months before he murdered their mother, Deyan Deyanov had been held in a psychiatric unit on the island.

Channel 4 Dispatches has seen Deyanov’s Spanish psychiatric notes which were later referred to in court. They describe him as having delusional thoughts which led to him attacking the stranger with a rock.

Yet despite this, he was let out again, after just 18 days.

Deyanov was living as a vagrant and becoming notorious for his violent outbursts.  Tenerife police said he was a danger to the public.

Just three days before he killed Jennifer Mills Westley, a warrant was issued for his arrest. But he was never picked up.

Deyanov had been released from the psychiatric facility in Tenerife with little continuing care. The same thing seems to have happened when he was discharged by the NHS in Wales.  

System of care has completely fallen down 

Professor Jeremy Coid, a leading Forensic Psychiatrist says: “Deyanov will slip through the net because that’s the law – that is the mental health act, that you do not detain people indefinitely any longer. And adding further to that is also the right of people to move from one country to the other in Europe now, without let or hindrance so to speak.” 

Jane Hughes, from mental health charity Rethink, says:  “A lot of the cases of the violence involving somebody with a serious mental illness, like schizophrenia, the vast majority of those cases happen when they've been crying out for help, there have been a lot of warnings signs there and when their system of care has completely fallen down.” 

“So when there's good care in place, when the right system is there, when people are getting the kind of support they need it's really extremely unusual”, she adds. 

The problem is that sometimes the right support is not in place. The question is, did the same problem happen in Deyanov’s case?

Jennifer Mills-Westley’s daughters meet with Deyanov’s aunt who lives in North Wales to get answers to the question of whether he received the right care. 

Sam 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,” she adds. 

Sarah says: “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.”

Concerns about the treatment Deyanov received from the NHS are echoed by Welsh politician Darren Millar who took a personal interest in this case.

Darren Millar says: “When I first heard about the Deyanov case I was very very concerned because I knew in the very unit where Mr Deyanov had been treated there had been a cut in the number of in-patient beds. 

I was concerned that those financial pressures, a mix of a pressure on beds , new patients needing to come into the service may have led to the early discharge of Mr Deyanov and it may not have been clinically safe for him to be discharged”

Patients who pose a risk discharged too early

For decades, the policy across the UK has been to reduce the number of psychiatric beds and treat more patients in the community.

Professor Coid says: “You’ve got increasing pressure on getting them [patients] out, and there’s the risk that actually you discharge patients too soon….  And one has to ask - to what extent can more senior, experienced staff really bring their judgement to bear on those patients, when they are dealing with such a high turnover.”

Mental health workers have told Channel 4 Dispatches that this pressure for beds has been intensified by recent cuts and some patients are even being booked into budget hotels.

One mental health worker who wished to remain anonymous says:  “I have seen patients who have been discharged too early, where they’ve still posed a risk…. We are frequently juggling more patients than we have beds for …. If you’re failing to manage the risk then obviously that increases the risk to the general public.”

Professor Robin Murray chairs the Schizophrenia Commission, which has been investigating the quality of care people with schizophrenia receive in the UK.  

Prof Robin Murray says: “Sadly one of the things that the Schizophrenia Commission found was that some people get a deplorable level of service.”

“We’re failing to do the best for people. Treatments are now much better, but we don’t have the resources to put these treatments into effect and help all those that we ought to be helping.”

“As a result of this the people who are at risk of harming themselves or harming other people are getting less monitoring and less support.”

The Court Case

Jennifer Mills-Westley family attended the trial Deyanov faced a charge of murder.

Just ahead of the first day in court, her daughter Sam says:  “It’s going to be incredibly difficult, being in the same room as him.  To see the knives he used in the killing.  To see him in the flesh – the person that killed my Mum.”

In court, Deyanov denied murder and claimed to be Jesus Christ.  

Deyanov says:  “Me? I would never do anything like that. I haven’t beheaded anyone.”

“I’m not sick. I don’t suffer from any illness. 

“I am Jesus Christ. I’ve come to create a New Jerusalem.”

At his trial, Deyanov also told the court that he hears voices in his head telling him when to kill. 

“For five years I have been hearing voices.  They tell me when to fight. They tell me when to kill”, he says. 

Deyanov’s defence lawyer criticises both the Spanish and UK authorities for not protecting the public from his client.

In his summary he says:  “My client is sorry for what he has done.  He is incapacitated.  He is a sick man.  Because he is mentally unfit other people should be held responsible.   He might as well have been holding up a sign saying ‘I am a bomb and at any moment I could explode’.  If they had acted, then the victim would still be here.  Why was he not detained? Why did they not do more?”

Deyan Deyanov received a twenty year sentence in a secure psychiatric unit.

Sarah and Sam gave a statement outside court:

“Jennifer Joan Mills Westley became known to the world as the woman who was beheaded in Tenerife. But to us she was our mum, our mentor and our best friend.

We would like to make a plea that the care of people like Deyanov is taken more seriously. He is a young man who has clearly be failed by a number of authorities in Spain, the UK and most likely others.”

Refused access to internal inquiry

The Mills-Westley family know the Health board in North Wales conducted an internal inquiry into Deyanov’s care. But they have been refused access to it. Instead, Sam and Sarah have been informed by letter that: ‘lessons have been learnt’ yet the Board won’t say what those lessons are - because of patient confidentiality. 

Sarah says:  "All they’ve said is lessons have been learnt and processes have been reviewed accordingly.”

Sarah says: ”bearing in mind I’m not a clinician, the impression that I’ve got is that their record keeping was poor, I think there was a language barrier and they didn’t understand him as he’s Bulgarian. I’m not convinced that the right processes of discharge were followed. I’m definitely not convinced that he had the upfront risk assessment done and I’m not sure he has had the regular check-ups from consultants and other medical staff. I want somebody to look me in the eye and tell me if they had another Deyanov walk in their door that they would treat him differently.”

Sarah has now been told that to find out more about Deyanov’s care in Wales, she will need his written consent.

Sarah says: 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. That cannot be right.”

Response from the Health Board in Wales

Channel 4 Dispatches has been given the following statement from the Health Board in Wales:

"The Health Board is naturally deeply sympathetic to the predicament of the family of the deceased and fully understands their desire to seek answers.

Our detailed investigations into the treatment provided to Mr Deyanov 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."

Calls for an independent review

Jennifer Mills-Westley family are calling for an independent review. 

Sarah tells Channel 4 Dispatches:  “We still haven’t got justice for our Mum, and what’s really important for us now as a family is an independent review.”

Sam says: “I’m hoping that obviously another family won’t have to live through what we are living through.”