The Bulgarian man accused of beheading  a British grandmother in Tenerife last Friday was obsessed with the sci-fi film “Predator” according to a friend.

The 28-year-old liked the way in which the alien creature hunted and be-heade its victims and had tattoos of characters from the film’s fictional language tattooed on his right arm.

A close friend of the accused told the Mirror newspaper he was a big fan of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

“He was obsessed by Predator. He enjoyed the way the Predators hunted and beheaded their victims. And he was always showing his tattoo off. We all loved the films but when we heard what Deyan had done in Tenerife it took on a new meaning. It’s terrifying. It makes me sick to the stomach,” the source said.

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Deyan Deyanov stabbed 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley in a supermarket last weekend after he had been released from a psychiatric unit in Spain on bail, despite a police warning that he was a danger to the public.

A police warrant was issued for his arrest after an unprovoked attack on a security guard, however he murdered the English woman before he was found.

After cutting off his victims head, he reportedly paraded it around the street.

The local mayor of Arona, Jose Albert Gonzalez Reveron said  more efforts should have been made to detain Deyanov.

"This person was well known to police and had been involved in very many altercations," he said.

"I don't dare to talk about police negligence, but everyone would like him to have been detained earlier. He should have been in a psychiatric hospital."

The body of the British woman, who lived on the island for almost ten years is expected to be flown back to the UK this week.

A retired road safety officer she was a mother of two daughters and have five grandchildren.