Relatives of Bulgarian-born Tenerife killer Deyan Deyanov claim he was released from a psychiatric unit in Cheshire before he went on to kill and behead British woman Jennifer Mills-Westley.

A cousin of the disturbed homeless man told The Sun he had been detained in the UK while visiting an aunt here.

And they blamed British authorities for letting him out, after which he returned to Tenerife and indulged his crack habit while living in a squat.

“They sectioned him and took him to a psychiatric unit in Cheshire. They only kept him there for a month,” the cousin said.

Deyanov will appear in a special court hearing on Tenerfife today, a day on which CCTV pictures of him minutes before the attack were released.

He was filmed in a mini-market demanding a large knife to “kill someone”.

The shopkeeper, Carlos, in his 40s, said: “He wandered around looking for something. He had a note which he showed me – it said, ‘I am God’. I asked him what he was looking for and he held his hands far apart and said ‘I’m looking for a knife this big’.

“I asked him why he wanted it and he said, ‘I’m going to kill somebody’. He drew a finger across his throat to show how he would do it.

“I told him I didn’t sell knives and threw him out. I couldn’t believe it when I heard he had killed a woman, I never thought for a minute he was serious. I’m in shock.”

The disturbed Deyanov then began began following Mills-Westley.

The frightened grandmother nipped into a social security office to alert staff, but left when she was still safe – unaware the Bulgarian was still shadowing her.

He followed Mills-Westley into a supermarket, seized a knife from a shelf and stabbed her 14 times with an ultra-sharp blade designed for cutting fine slices of ham.

CCTV caught every moment of the horror before Deyanov left carrying his victim’s head.