Failed asylum seeker killed 87-year-old who gave him a home
A frail elderly woman who let a failed asylum seeker live “like a grandson” in her home in a North Yorkshire village was brutally murdered by him, a judge has heard.
Brenda Blainey, 87, met Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon in a Leeds restaurant in 2013 when he was a student, Leeds Crown Court heard.
She invited him to live with her in her home in the tourist village of Thornton-le-Dale, where she treated him like a grandson, the court heard.
But on Jan 5 last year, the Iranian national, who has a paranoid schizophrenia, strangled Mrs Blainey before smashing her head on the kitchen floor, stabbing her in the chest and cutting her throat.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley KC described on Monday how Mrs Blainey was placing an order with the village shop when the phone call went dead. She could not be contacted again despite 12 calls by the concerned shopkeeper, he said.
Mr Lumley said the assumption is that this is when the attack on her began.
He said Darvish-Narenjbon was born in Tehran but had been in the UK since he was 15-years-old, although he lived for some time in the US, where he spent time in a psychiatric unit.
Mr Lumley said the defendant's permission to remain in the UK expired in 2015, and his application for asylum was unsuccessful, as was his appeal against the refusal.
'Grandma-grandson relationship'
The prosecutor said Darvish-Narenjbon met Mrs Blainey at Carluccio's restaurant in Leeds in 2013 and she offered him a room in her home, where she "provided him with food and other home comforts as he was studying in Leeds".
He said their friendship was characterised as a "grandma-grandson relationship" and they spoke regularly while he was away studying.
Mrs Blainey even attended his master's degree graduation and provided him with a study and a car.
Mr Lumley said: "Towards the end of her life, Mrs Blainey was becoming increasingly frail and her memory was failing but she managed to live independently."
He said no-one but the defendant, who had a severe mental illness, knows what happened to her on Jan 5.
'Acutely psychotic'
The prosecutor said: "Mrs Blainey's family continue to wonder what truly became of her and why she was killed."
He said the defendant told police he had been asleep upstairs and came down to find her in a pool of blood in the kitchen.
Darvish-Narenjbon appeared in court by videolink from Rampton high security special hospital wearing a grey sweatshirt.
Members of Mrs Blainey's family watched in court as James Stoddart, a forensic psychiatrist, told the judge the defendant was "acutely psychotic" and had paranoid schizophrenia.
The court heard that, under current rules, he will be deported if he is ever released from secure hospital or prison.
Darvish-Narenjbon denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Judge Rodney Jameson KC said he will sentence him on Wednesday at 11am.
