Thornton-le-Dale: Iranian engineer turned down for refugee status is detained in secure hospital for killing woman who gave him a home in Yorkshire village

Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon, 34, stabbed, strangled and assaulted Brenda Blainey, 88, at The Grove in Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, in January 2022.

The ‘grandmother and grandson’ relationship between them began after she met him when he worked in a Carluccio’s restaurant while studying civil engineering at the University of Leeds in 2013.

Mrs Blainey, who had two daughters, invited him to stay at her house and gave him use of her car, and he was a regular visitor to Thornton-le-Dale as she became increasingly frail.

Psychiatrists agreed that Darvish-Narenjbon, who was born in Iran and had lived in the UK since the age of 15, was ‘acutely psychotic’ and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he attacked Mrs Blainey in the kitchen as she was on the phone to the local shop placing a grocery order.

Leeds Crown Court heard that there would have been a ‘period of survival’ after he had struck her head against the floor before he slit her windpipe with a kitchen knife.

Judge Rodney Jameson KC considered a custodial sentence, but eventually issued an order for unlimited detention in hospital which he stated could be ‘indefinite’ depending on how treatment progressed.

He said: “It was in 2008, when you were living in the US and were admitted to a psychiatric unit, that the first signs of your mental illness became apparent. You have a history of contact with mental health services and were aware of your problems, if perhaps not the full extent of them. Brenda Blainey took a kindly interest in you, your academic studies and progress through life. You killed her with appalling brutality and have never given a full account of what you did.”

Judge Jameson clarified that Darvish-Narenjbon’s right to remain in the UK expired in 2015, after which he applied for refugee status and was refused – but was not considered for deportation to Iran because of the ‘ongoing political situation’ there.

Darvish-Narenjbon denied murder and a guilty plea to manslaughter by diminished responsibility was accepted. Although his rational judgement was considered to have been impaired, Judge Jameson decreed that he did bear some degree of responsibility.

He added that Darvish-Narenjbon’s medication had been reduced before he killed Mrs Blainey and he had had limited contact with other forms of therapy during Covid lockdowns.

"Your responsibility has not been extinguished and you remain, to a lower degree, responsible for this harm of utmost seriousness. Brenda Blainey was acutely vulnerable and you used extreme violence. Your condition is lifelong, you are prone to relapse and you pose a significant risk to the public. You will remain in hospital for the forseeable future.”

A restraining order preventing contact with Mrs Blainey’s family indefinitely was also imposed. and Darvish-Narenjbon will be deported to Iran if he is ever deemed fit for release.