Jennifer Mills-Westley was brutally murdered in Tenerife in May 2011.

Killer of Hellesdon grandmother given 20-year sentence

Caroline McGregor Thursday, February 28, 2013
2:53 PM

Deyan Deyanov has been sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric unit for killing Hellesdon grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley in a Tenerife supermarket.

Deyan Deyanov, 29, in the Provincial Court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, where his is charged with the murder of grandmother Jennifer Mills-Westley. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday February 18, 2013. See PA story COURTS Tenerife. Photo credit should read: Ramon de la Rocha/PA Wire

The Bulgarian national was found guilty of the murder of Mrs Mills-Westley by a jury last week.

The 60-year-old, who had worked for Norfolk County Council as a road safety officer before moving to Tenerife on her retirement, was shopping in the quiet resort of Los Cristianos when she was attacked with a knife by the homeless drug addict back in May 2011.

Deyanov had denied murder, with the defence arguing he was not criminally responsible for his actions as he suffers acute paranoid schizophrenia.

But the jury found him guilty of murder, because he had taken his victim by surprise and she could not defend herself.

Following the trial, Mrs Mills-Westley’s family released a statement describing her as a “highly gifted, selfless person with so much love in her heart” who had been “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”