British woman beheaded in Tenerife made desperate plea for help before attack

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8514437/British-woman-beheaded-in-Tenerife-made-desperate-plea-for-help-before-attack.html

Summary

A 60 year old woman from Norwich was attacked and beheaded by a man at a supermarket in Tenerife. She first reported being harassed by the man to a security officer earlier on the same day, and stayed in the safety of his office until the threat seemed to pass. Upon leaving, however, she once again met her aggressor, who attacked her. The man was reportedly being treated for paranoid schizophrenia earlier in the year and was known by many in the neighbourhood for his violent outbursts. Friends and family of the victim are deeply shocked by this turn of events. The police do not know what might have sparked the attack.

Comment

This is an extremely sad thing to read on the news. At the same time, what caught my attention the most was the almost careless mention that the man had been in a psychiatric ward, with no real information on what he was exactly there for and of his case history. This is something people leap upon after such a violent occurrence. The words ‘paranoid schizophrenia’ have now become linked with murderous tendencies, causing people with that illness to receive even more of a stigma. Patients could easily become lumped together with the man who committed this murder, which would be unfair. I hope the investigation will shed further light on the man’s motives and the circumstances in which he acted.