Norwich: Trial Starts Of Man Accused Of Killing Woman in Tenerife

18 February 2013, 06:17 | Updated: 18 February 2013, 13:50

60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley was murdered in a shop in Tenerife in 2011.

A man will go on trial today accused of her killing her in a frenzied knife attack.

Jennifer Mills-Westley was killed in the popular resort of Los Cristianos in the Canary Islands, Spain, on May 13 2011.

Bulgarian man Deyan Deyanov, 29, is charged with her murder and will stand trial before a jury at the Provincial Court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Ms Mills-Westley, originally from Norwich, was inside a Chinese-owned shop on Avenida Juan Carlos when she was viciously stabbed and decapitated.

She was described by her family as someone who was "full of life, generous of heart and would do anything for anyone''.

She was a mother of two daughters - Sarah and Sam - and grandmother of five who was living life to the full in the "eternal spring'' of the Canary Islands.

Originally from Norwich she had worked as a road safety officer with Norfolk County Council.

In that role, Ms Mills-Westley taught schoolchildren cycling safety training and she was described by colleagues as "popular and well-respected''.

She had retired and settled in Tenerife, where she owned two apartments in the Port Royale complex on the hillside edge of Los Cristianos.

One two-bedroom flat was rented out while she lived in the other and had been resident there for at least 10 years.

Neighbours described her as "quiet and peaceful and always immaculately dressed''.

With one of her daughters living in France and the other in Norwich, she enjoyed travelling to pay visits to her family.

In a poignant tribute following her death, her ex-husband Peter told The Mail on Sunday she was a `"wonderful woman, a brilliant mother and I loved her dearly''.