Deividas Skebas has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of nine-year-old Lilia Valytute in Boston, Lincolnshire.
Lilia was stabbed once through the heart on 28 July 2022 as she played outside with her hula hoop near her home. She died less than an hour later in her mother’s arms following the random attack.
Lincoln Crown Court heard Skebas, a Lithuanian fruit picker, had bought a kitchen knife two days before the killing and repeatedly returned to the area around Fountain Lane. CCTV footage showed him approaching Lilia at about 18:15 before plunging the knife into her heart. The court was told she had been a “carefree, happy girl” who “should have been safe”.
After the attack, Skebas shaved his beard, hid the knife behind a radiator and attempted to leave the country on a bus to Lithuania. Prosecutors said he knew what he was doing and took steps to avoid detection. At the time of the killing, he was a regular cannabis user and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Skebas initially claimed he was being controlled by a microchip implanted by NASA and was detained in a secure hospital after being found unfit to stand trial. In 2023, a trial of fact determined he had carried out the killing, but that process was not a criminal conviction. He was later reassessed, found fit to stand trial, and earlier this year a jury convicted him of murder. He had denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, which the jury rejected.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Akhlaq Choudhury described the attack as “shocking and horrific”, saying nothing could relieve the family’s pain. Skebas appeared via video link from Rampton Hospital and showed no visible reaction as the sentence was delivered.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Lilia’s mother, Lina Savickiene, said her grief was “not something you recover from”. She said: “Why her? Why us? These questions remain unanswered.”
Police praised Lilia’s family and friends for their strength and dignity during the nearly four-year legal process.