Stranger who stabbed girl, 9, 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 told police he was being controlled by a chip implanted in his brain by the US space agency NASA, denied murder but admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

He was convicted of murder by a jury at Lincoln Crown Court on 5 February.

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.

Skebas appeared by video-link from high-security facility Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire wearing a navy blue zip-up jumper and stared ahead without reacting as his sentence was read out by Mr Justice Choudhury on Wednesday.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge said Lilia was a "happy, lively girl as carefree as any nine-year-old should be", adding that Skebas committed a "shocking and horrific act of violence" on her.

He added: "She should have been safe. She was playing in a pedestrianised area and just yards away from her mum."

Mr Justice Choudhury said Skebas had been a user of drugs including cannabis and amphetamines, which would "likely worsen" his schizophrenia.

Opening the Crown's case against Skebas last month, Christopher Donnellan KC told jurors: "This deliberate murder was clearly a wicked act. He knew his conduct was wrong. He knew he was killing a child."

Mr Donnellan told the court on Wednesday: "This was a particularly vulnerable victim, a young girl aged nine. The offence took place with a degree of planning or premeditation."

Jurors heard Skebas loitered around the area until it was quiet before he stabbed the girl with a Sabatier paring knife he bought from a Wilko shop two days earlier.

In the days after the attack, Skebas shaved his beard, tucked the knife behind a radiator and tried to leave the UK for Lithuania on a bus.

Lilia's mother said in an impact statement read by her husband, Aurelijus Savickas, on the day Skebas was convicted: "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."

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The court heard Skebas was arrested two days after the attack, but his mental health was "declining" so he was taken to hospital.

He told detectives he had eaten a piece of rice which he believed was a microchip, and that he had "the power to resurrect" Lilia if the police contacted "his controller in NASA".

In CCTV footage shown to jurors, Lilia could be seen playing with a hula hoop while Skebas watched her from the end of the road, occasionally touching his back pocket, where Mr Donnellan said the knife was hidden.

The force of the attack caused Lilia to fall backwards onto the shutters of the shop next to her mother's store.

An off-duty police officer, Detective Constable Andrew Pearson, who was nearby at the time started running after the defendant, but after hearing "noises of distress" he tried to save Lilia's life.

The girl was pronounced dead at just after 7pm, within an hour of the attack.

In mitigation, defence barrister Andrew Campbell-Tiech KC said Skebas remains dangerous "not merely to himself but in the absence of medication... a danger to others".

He added: "This young man has been subject to a serious and dangerous condition for many, many years."

The judge told Skebas that although he has been sentenced to life imprisonment, "alternative arrangements may have to be made" because of his current mental state.

(c) Sky News 2026: Stranger who stabbed girl, 9, in the heart as she played outside mum's shop jailed for life