Man stabbed nine-year-old girl in heart while she played, murder trial hears

A schizophrenic man stabbed a nine-year-old girl through the heart with a knife while she was playing with a hula hoop in the street, a murder trial has heard.

Jurors were told that Lilia Valutyte was killed by 26-year-old Deividas Skebas in a “wicked act” in Fountain Lane in Boston, Lincolnshire, on July 28 2022 while her mother was working nearby.

Skebas, who moved back to the UK from Lithuania just weeks before the attack, denies murdering Lilia but admits manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, the court heard.

Jurors were told that there is no dispute that Skebas stabbed and killed Lilia, but they must decide what the defendant’s state of mind was when he killed her.

The defendant sat in the dock wearing a navy zip-up hoodie as prosecutor Christopher Donnellan KC opened the case against him at Lincoln Crown Court on Monday.

Mr Donnellan told the jury of seven men and five women: “It’s a tragic case, we accept. But, as has already been indicated by My Lord, one you have got to set aside your emotions.

“This deliberate murder was clearly a wicked act. He knew his conduct was wrong. He knew he was killing a child.”

The prosecutor said Lilia was playing outside a shop where her mother was working in Boston town centre.

Mr Donnellan said: “Just after 6.15 on the late afternoon of July 28 in 2022, Lilia, a little girl aged nine, was playing in the street.

“The street, not accessible to through-traffic, was empty. Barely anyone was about, it was quiet. Lilia was playing with a hula hoop around her.

“The defendant, Deividas Skebas, was waiting. He waited while other pedestrians moved out of the way. When they left the immediate area and had gone… he approached from the Wormgate end of Fountain Lane.”

Mr Donnellan said Skebas’s pace “quickened” before he took a knife out from his back pocket.

The prosecutor continued: “He put the knife straight into the middle of Lilia and the force of it appears to have knocked her back towards some shutters on the adjoining shop.

“That stab wound went straight through her heart and she fell there in the street. He ran off.”

In CCTV footage shown to jurors, Lilia was 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.

Skebas was then seen walking towards the girl, before stabbing her and running away.

An off-duty police officer nearby initially chased the defendant, the court heard, but after hearing “noises of distress” he began to try to save Lilia’s life.

Mr Donnellan said Lilia was pronounced dead at about 7.11pm, within an hour of the attack.

Skebas had bought a Sabatier paring knife from a Wilko shop in the town two days before he killed Lilia, the jury was told.

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, the court heard.

The court heard that Skebas was arrested on July 30 but his mental health was “declining” so he was transferred to hospital.

After he was arrested, the defendant said there was a “form of control over him and his actions”, referring to Nasa and a microchip, the court heard.

Jurors were told it was determined that Skebas, formerly of Thorold Street in Boston, Lincolnshire, was not fit to be tried at the time.

Mr Donnellan told the jury: “He is saying he’s not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

“Experts agree that Mr Skebas is diagnosed with schizophrenia.”

The court heard that he has been treated for his mental health both in the UK and in Lithuania.

Mr Donnellan said Skebas attacked someone with pepper spray while he was living in the UK in 2020, before he was taken to hospital and then moved back to Lithuania.

The prosecutor said the defendant had lawfully returned to the UK on July 2 2022, adding: “It is not entirely clear why he came here, possibly for work.”

Speaking about Skebas’s actions, Mr Donnellan told the jury: “He shows self-control throughout the period leading up to and after the killing.

“He ran away, he changed his appearance by shaving, he decided not to hand himself in – there was substantial media coverage and he still didn’t.”

The trial continues.