Lina Savickiene has described how her nine-year-old daughter Lilia collapsed in her arms covered in blood following a random stabbing attack, with the family waiting almost four years for the killer to be jailed after he was initially found unfit to stand trial.
Deividas Skebas, now 26, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years at Lincoln Crown Court on Wednesday for murdering Lilia Valytute as she played with a hula hoop outside her mother’s embroidery shop in Boston, Lincolnshire on 28 July 2022.
The Lithuanian fruit picker had been detained in a secure hospital after claiming a microchip implanted by NASA controlled his actions, with doctors initially finding him unfit to participate in criminal proceedings. A 2023 trial of fact found him responsible for the murder, but this type of hearing is not considered a criminal prosecution.
Skebas was reassessed last year and found fit to take part in a criminal trial, which began in January and resulted in his murder conviction. The delay meant Lilia’s family endured nearly four years before seeing him face justice for the attack.
In a moving victim impact statement read by her husband Aurelijus Savickas, Mrs Savickiene recounted the moment she heard “mum” whilst working in her shop. “She was getting pale. She collapsed in my hands. I saw the wounds, started to cover them. I just got scared, started to shout for somebody to help me,” she told last month’s trial.
Lilia’s five-year-old sister stood beside them as the schoolgirl died less than an hour after being stabbed once through the heart. The hula hoop was still around her when her mother found her covered in blood.
Mrs Savickiene, who became an independent local councillor after her daughter’s death, stated her grief was “not something you recover from.” She wrote: “She was my firstborn. On the day she was born, we almost died – we fought for each other’s lives. And where are we now?”
The mother described visiting Skebas’ hometown in Lithuania attempting to find answers. “A rather beautiful, fairly large town. His mother owns a flower shop. There were so many thoughts, and I tried to understand – to feel – why? For what? I still cannot comprehend it,” she stated.
Mr Savickas, who became Lilia’s stepfather when she was three, rejected defence assertions that both sides were victims. “The person who committed the crime still has the ability to taste food, smell scents, choose who to communicate with and is able to live. As Lilia did not choose to die this can never be compared,” he stated.
Mr Justice Akhlaq Choudhury told Lincoln Crown Court that CCTV from before the incident showed Lilia as a “carefree, happy girl” who “should have been safe” playing with her hula hoop. “How could anyone imagine that within seconds she would be stabbed by a complete stranger and left to die?” he said. “Yours was a shocking and horrific act of violence.”
The judge stated Skebas had bought an “ordinary kitchen knife” and walked around the same area in Boston apparently searching for a victim. “You kept returning to the same area around Fountain Lane. At 18:15 you did the unthinkable. You headed straight towards her, pulled out the knife and as soon as you approached the unsuspecting Lilia, you plunged the knife into her heart,” he said.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Skebas buying a Sabatier paring knife from a Boston Wilko branch on 26 July, two days before the murder. Chilling footage played to the court showed him watching Lilia play before waiting for passers-by to leave and approaching her around 6.15pm.
Skebas, a schizophrenic cannabis user, had denied murder but admitted manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility due to his mental illness. However, the trial heard he was a regular cannabis user despite being aware of its impact on his mental health.
After the murder he shaved his beard, hid the knife behind a radiator and made efforts to leave the country on a bus to Lithuania. Prosecutors argued that at the time of the stabbing Skebas knew what he was doing and took actions to avoid detection.
The jury heard Skebas was previously detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act during 2020 after showing signs of psychosis when attacking another person with pepper spray. He was discharged to Lithuania but legally returned to the UK via Folkestone on 2 July 2022, arriving in Boston where he shared a multi-occupancy home.
Skebas was not present in court and appeared via video link from Rampton Hospital, a high security psychiatric unit in Nottinghamshire. Wearing a navy blue zip-up jumper he stared ahead without reacting as his sentence was read out.
Police paid tribute to Lilia’s friends and family for their “remarkable strength, dignity, patience and understanding” during the nearly four-year wait for justice. Marc Thompson, a District Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service East Midlands, stated: “This has been a lengthy process for Lilia’s family and loved ones, as they have been forced to wait for Skebas to be fit to take part in this trial.”
The 25-year minimum term means Skebas will remain imprisoned until at least 2047 before becoming eligible for parole consideration. His confinement at Rampton Hospital, a high security psychiatric facility, will continue during his sentence given his ongoing mental health condition requiring specialized treatment alongside incarceration.
