Man who murdered nine-year-old girl while she played jailed for life

A man who murdered a nine-year-old girl by stabbing her in the heart while she played with a hula hoop in the street has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.

Lilia Valutyte was attacked by Deividas Skebas, 26, in the town centre of Boston, Lincolnshire, on July 28 2022, while she was playing outside her mother’s embroidery shop.

A trial heard there was no dispute that Skebas, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, killed Lilia, but a jury was asked to decide what his state of mind was at the time of the attack.

The Lithuanian defendant, who told police he was being controlled by Nasa, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but was convicted of murder by a jury at Lincoln Crown Court on February 5.

Skebas, formerly of Thorold Street in Boston, appeared by video-link from high security facility Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire wearing a navy blue zip-up jumper and stared ahead without reacting as his sentence was read out by Mr Justice Choudhury on Wednesday.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge said Lilia was a “happy, lively girl as carefree as any nine-year-old should be”, adding that Skebas committed a “shocking and horrific act of violence” on her.

He added: “She should have been safe. She was playing in a pedestrianised area and just yards away from her mum.”

Mr Justice Choudhury said Skebas had been a user of drugs including cannabis and amphetamines which would “likely worsen” his schizophrenia.

Skebas had initially been deemed unfit to stand trial but it was later argued that, while his deteriorating mental health was genuine, he did indeed know what he was doing, had tried to avoid detection and intended to flee the country.

Opening the Crown’s case against Skebas last month, Christopher Donnellan KC told jurors: “This deliberate murder was clearly a wicked act. He knew his conduct was wrong. He knew he was killing a child.”

Mr Donnellan told the court on Wednesday: “This was a particularly vulnerable victim, a young girl aged nine. The offence took place with a degree of planning or premeditation.”

Jurors had heard that Skebas had prowled around the area until it was quiet before he stabbed the child with a Sabatier paring knife he had bought from a Wilko shop two days before.

In the days after the attack, Skebas shaved his beard, tucked the knife behind a radiator and made efforts to leave the country on a bus to Lithuania.

Lilia’s mother, Lina Savickiene, who found the girl “covered in blood and with the hoop around her” after the stabbing, said in an impact statement read by her husband, Aurelijus Savickas, on the day Skebas was convicted: “This is not something you recover from.

“Sometimes terrifying thoughts overwhelm the mind and during this trial there have been many, many more.

“Why her? Why us? The questions remain unanswered.”

The court heard that Skebas was arrested two days after the attack but his mental health was “declining” so he was transferred to hospital.

He told detectives he had eaten a piece of rice which he believed was actually a microchip, and that he had “the power to resurrect” Lilia if the police contacted “his controller in Nasa”.

In CCTV footage shown to jurors, Lilia could be seen playing with a hula hoop while Skebas, wearing a grey T-shirt and jeans, watched her from the end of Fountain Lane while occasionally touching his back pocket, where Mr Donnellan said the knife was.

The force from the attack knocked Lilia backwards onto the shutters of the shop next to her mother’s.

An off-duty police officer, Detective Constable Andrew Pearson, who was nearby initially chased the defendant but after hearing “noises of distress” he began to try to save Lilia’s life.

The girl was pronounced dead at about 7.11pm, within an hour of the attack.

In mitigation, defence barrister Andrew Campbell-Tiech KC said Skebas remains dangerous “not merely to himself but in the absence of medication… a danger to others”.

He added: “This young man has been subject to a serious and dangerous condition for many, many years.”

The judge told Skebas that although he has been sentenced to life imprisonment, “alternative arrangements may have to be made” because of his current mental health state.