Man who stabbed nine-year-old in the heart as she played outside mum's shop jailed for life

A man who stabbed a nine-year-old girl outside her mother's embroidery shop has been jailed for a minimum of 25 years.

Deividas Skebas, 26, stabbed Lilia Valutyte in the heart as she played with a hula hoop in Boston, Lincolnshire, on 28 July 2022.

Skebas, a Lithuanian who has schizophrenia and moved back to the UK just weeks before the attack, had denied murder but admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

Lilia's mother, Lina Savickiene, said she found her daughter "covered in blood and with the hoop around her".

She initially thought "something might have happened" with the hula hoop and described shouting for help while attempting to cover her daughter's wounds as she became pale.

An off-duty police officer tried to help save Lilia, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Skebas was judged mentally unfit to stand trial in 2023, but that assessment changed in spring 2025 and a criminal trial began at Lincoln Crown Court in January this year.

Jurors were told there was no dispute he had killed Lilia but they had to decide what his state of mind was at the time of the attack.

Prosecutors said he had known what he was doing in stabbing Lilia - who would have turned 13 this year - and tried to avoid being caught.

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