Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon had admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility Given the situation in Iran, the 34-year-old will not currently be considered for deportation, a judge said LONDON: A failed Iranian asylum seeker who killed an elderly British woman in North Yorkshire has been sentenced to indefinite detention in a secure hospital. A court heard that Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon had befriended Brenda Blainey, 83, who offered him a room in her home in the village of Thornton-le-Dale. Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Rodney Jameson KC said that the victim had treated her killer like a “grandson,” the Independent reported. Darvish-Narenjbon strangled Blainey, bashed her head on the floor, stabbed her in the chest and cut her throat on Jan. 5 last year. During a previous hearing, the 34-year-old Iranian national admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The court was told he was born in Tehran and had lived in the UK since he was 15, with the exception of a brief stay in the US where spent time in a psychiatric unit. He first arrived in Britain in 2005 and sought asylum there after his student visa expired in 2013. His application and subsequent appeals were denied. He filed another asylum claim in 2020, which was pending at the time he killed Blainey. He could not be deported from the UK in the time between his applications because there was not a returns agreement in place with Iran, a government source told the Independent. Judge Jameson said on Wednesday that three consultant forensic psychiatrists agreed Darvish-Narenjbon has schizophrenia and that his “retained responsibility” for the killing was “low.” “You killed Brenda Blainey in her own home in circumstances of appalling brutality,” he said. “I want to make it clear both to you and to the family of Brenda Blainey that this is not to say that your responsibility is extinguished. It is not. “You remain, albeit to a low degree, responsible for the dreadful death of Mrs Blainey and for the grief and suffering that this has caused to her friends and family.” The judge added that Darvish-Narenjbon will not immediately face the prospect of being sent back to his home country. “Given the situation in Iran, however, you will not presently be considered for deportation,” he said. A Home Office spokesman told the Independent: “Foreign national offenders who exploit our system and commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible. “The Government is committed to stopping abuse of the immigration system, taking decisive action against those who try to play the system.”