An Iranian migrant whose right to live in the UK expired in 2015 has been sent to a mental health hospital “indefinitely” over the killing of an elderly woman who housed and fed him.
Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon, an Iranian migrant, admitted to killing the woman the last year. The court heard he smashed her head on the floor, stabbed her, and finally cut her throat.
The migrant — whose permission to remain in the UK reportedly ended in 2015 — has admitted to the charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denied murder. He was due to be sentenced today by Leeds Crown Court, but rather than being sent to prison he was told he would be sent to a mental health institution “indefinitely”, GB News reports.
Should he ever be released, he would be eligible for deportation, although in practice very few people are ever deported from the United Kingdom.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Darvish-Narenjbon is said to have been taken in by the woman — described as being 87-year-old Brenda Blainey — after they met at a restaurant, with the court being told that the ageing woman is said to have treated the man like her grandson.
So close was their relationship that Blainey is said to have attended the Iranian’s master’s degree graduation, and had provided him with a car.
However, alarm bells were reportedly raised when a phone call between Blainey and a local shop reportedly dropped, with a subsequent 12 calls by the concerned shopkeeper failing to get the elderly woman back on the line.
Darvish-Narenjbon initially claimed to have been asleep at the time of Blainey’s death, and had awoken to find Blainey in a pool of blood in the kitchen, but since admitted the killing.
Speaking to the court, forensic psychiatrist James Stoddart described the Iranian as being “acutely psychotic”, describing him as having paranoid schizophrenia.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley also described the Iranian as suffering from significant mental issues in the run-up to Blainey’s death.
“He killed her so in some part because of voices in his head,” he reportedly told the court. “A psychiatrist says he was suffering symptoms of schizophrenia and was out of touch with reality and hearing voices.”