It was a hot summer’s evening in July, Lina Savickiene was working in her embroidery shop in the Lincolnshire market town of Boston while her nine-year-old daughter was happily playing outside on the street with a hula hoop.
Suddenly a piercing scream that every mother fears broke the stillness as her child Lilia Valutyte cried ‘Mum’.
Racing outside on to Fountain Lane, Lina was confronted with the sight of her little girl stabbed through the heart, still clutching onto her hula hoop and covered in blood. Lilia’s five-year-old sister stood by her.
Lilia had been attacked by a violent schizophrenic fruit picker from Lithuania, who believed he was being controlled by a microchip from NASA.
Deividas Skebas, 26, was convicted of the murder on Thursday at Lincoln Crown Court but in 2023, Lina recounted to the BBC the heartbreaking aftermath that unfolded on July 28, 2022.
‘I just heard “Mum!”‘, she said.
‘I went outside. I saw there was blood and she was with a hula hoop and the hula hoop was bent. I straight away said, “Lilia what has happened?” I took the hula hoop and she was still standing. She fell into my hands.’
Cupping her distraught face in her hands, the mother added: ‘I started to shout for help.’
‘They [emergency crews] take me inside,’ Lina told the BBC, ‘and I realise that she has gone and they are not rushing or anything.’
Nine-year-old Lilia Valutyte (pictured) was killed by Deividas Skebas, 26, in Boston, Lincolnshire, outside her mother’s embroidery shop on Fountain Lane
Skebas, from Lithuania, was convicted of murder on Thursday at Lincoln Crown Court
Lilia collapsed and died within an hour, cradled in her mother’s arms, just metres away from her five-year-old sister (left)
Lina Savickiene (pictured) was working inside of an embroidery shop when she heard her daughter scream ‘Mum’
In Lina’s victim impact statement, which was read by her husband Aurelijus Savickas, she said: ‘During the nine years we lived life fully, we visited many places, we didn’t stand still.
‘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. Nothing will bring our child back, the pain will not disappear and the tears shed will not wash away.’
In chilling video footage Lilia, who attended Boston Pioneers Academy, is seen happily playing in the street with her sister before she was attacked.
Skebas waited for people to leave before approaching Lilia. The Lithuanian, who had moved to the UK just weeks before, then sped up towards the child and pulled a knife from the back pocket of his trousers, stabbing Lilia once.
Despite the efforts of an off-duty police officer who heard ‘noises of distress’, Skebas escaped. The officer tried to save the child’s life but Lilia died within an hour.
‘She collapsed in my hands. I saw wounds, started to cover them. I just got scared, started to shout for somebody to help me.’
At last month’s trial, Lina recalled: ‘She was getting pale.
‘She collapsed in my hands. I saw wounds, started to cover them. I just got scared, started to shout for somebody to help me.’
Hundreds of mourners gathered near St Botolph’s Church in Bostin to watch Lilia’s coffin arrive in a white horse-drawn carriage at her funeral on September 2, 2022.
The tiny white coffin was covered in bright-coloured butterflies, while the horses wore pink feathers and the pallbearers pink ties.
Lillia’s coffin being carried into St Botolph’s Church in Boston, Lincs, on September 2, 2022
Lilia was killed by Skebas at around 6.20pm on July 28, 2022, while playing outside
After murdering Lilia, Skebas shaved his beard, hid the knife behind a radiator and tried to leave the UK on a bus to Lithuania. His former girlfriend said he had left the country due to health issues.
The murderer was arrested two days after the attack and was admitted into a hospital due to ‘declining’ mental health. He told police ‘there was a form of control over him and his actions’ and believed he was being controlled by a microchip that been placed inside of him during a trip to Norway.
Skebas, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, denied murdering the schoolgirl but admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
There was no denying that Skebas had killed Lilia but the jury was asked to determine what his state of mind had been at the time of the murder.
He was convicted by a majority of 11 to one on Thursday after a jury deliberation of seven and a half hours – three days after what would have been Lilia’s 13th birthday on Monday, February 2.
Skebas was originally found unfit to stand trial and was detained in a secure hospital. It was found at a trial of fact in 2023 that he had been responsible for Lilia’s murder.
Last year he was assessed and found as being fit to plead and take part in a trial.
Mr Justice Choudhury adjourned the case for sentencing without addressing Skebas, who was watching on a video link from Rampton high-security hospital.
