'Shortcomings' in care of Tenerife beheading killer

A paranoid schizophrenic who decapitated a woman in a supermarket in Tenerife was misdiagnosed by Welsh mental health services less than a year before the murder, a report has found.

Deyan Deyanov attacked Jennifer Mills-Westley with a knife while she was shopping on the Spanish island in May 2011. He was sentenced to 20 years in a secure psychiatric unit, after being convicted of murder by a jury.

The previous year, Deyanov was sectioned under the Mental Health Act while visiting his aunt in North Wales, and spent seven weeks receiving treatment at a hospital psychiatric unit.

But doctors believed he was faking illness, and discharged him in October 2010. He is believed to have moved to Tenerife shortly afterwards.

Today a report by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales found "clear shortcomings" in Deyanov's care at the Ablett Psychiatric Unit, Bodelwyddan, which is run by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

The report said had his case been handled better, the likelihood of him going on to murder Mrs Mills-Westley "might have been significantly reduced."

It found that his care was "not delivered to a sufficient standard" and that there were failures in how his case was monitored and followed up. It has made 19 recommendations for improvements.