Tenerife beheading: killer copied Predator film
The man accused of beheading a British grandmother on the holiday island of Tenerife last Friday was obsessed with the sci-fi film Predator and its decapitations, a friend claimed.
Deyan Deyanov was sent to a psychiatric unit at the Nuestra Senora de Candalaria hospital in the island's capital Santa Cruz but was later released on bail
CCTV still of Deyan Deyanov in a supermarket prior to the murder of Jenny Mills
9:50AM BST 17 May 2011
Deyan Deyanov, 28, enjoyed the way the alien creature hunted and beheaded its victims and had tattoos of characters from its fictional language on his right arm.
Deyanov hacked to death Jennifer Mills-Westley, 60, in a supermarket after the Spanish legal system had released him from a psychiatric unit on bail, despite police warning he was a danger to the public.
After an unprovoked attack on a security guard, a warrant was issued for his arrest but he killed before he was found.
It has emerged that the homeless Bulgarian, who was a habitual cannabis smoker, made a short video on his mobile phone four years ago in which he said: "I don't like human beings."
After cutting off Mrs Mills-Westley's head, Deyanov reportedly paraded it through the street.
On May 10 magistrate Nelson Diaz Frias had issued a warrant for the arrest of Deyan Deyanov, 28, after he failed to meet bail conditions following an attack in which he bashed out his victim's front teeth with a rock.
The unprovoked assault on a night security guard patrolling the beach front in the popular resort of Los Cristianos took place on January 4.
When Deyanov was arrested for that crime he boasted to police that he was "a prophet of God on earth" and was "planning something big".
According to a local source a police report labelled him as "a dangerous individual who should be kept off the streets".
He was sent to a psychiatric unit at the Nuestra Senora de Candalaria hospital in the island's capital Santa Cruz but was later released on bail, a decision made by the magistrate after consulting doctors.
The Bulgarian was supposed to report to the court every fortnight but failed to show up and the magistrate of Court of Instruction number four in Arona issued the arrest warrant on May 10.
But police failed to locate the man, a habitual drug user who gave his address as the harbour-side promenade of the busy resort.
In fact, he regularly spent the night in a derelict building on the beach in front of the promenade and was well known in the area for his aggressive behaviour towards tourists.
Jose Albert Gonzalez Reveron, the mayor of Arona, the municipal area that includes Los Cristianos, said more efforts should have been made to detain Deyanov.
"This person was well known to police and had been involved in very many altercations," he said. "I don't dare to talk about police negligence, but everyone would like him to have been detained earlier. He should have been in a psychiatric hospital."
Manuel Reveron, councillor for security at the town hall, said: "Police were actively searching for Deyanov but they were unable to locate him because he had no fixed address. "In my opinion he should not have been released from the psychiatric hospital following the earlier attack."
"We carried out our obligations and we handed him over to the court, we don't know what happened next. If it had been dealt with differently this terrible crime could have been avoided."
A spokesman for the Nuestra Senora de Candelaria hospital confirmed that Deyanov had been a patient but refused to comment further citing confidentiality reasons.
Deyanov appeared before investigating magistrate Carmen Rosa del Pino at the Court of Instruction number two in Arona on Saturday night, provisionally charged with murder. He is being held in the psychiatric unit of Tenerife II prison undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
The body of Mrs Mills-Westley, who had lived on the island for at least ten years, is expected to be repatriated to the UK this week. The retired road safety officer was a mother of two daughters and had five grandchildren.
