7-year-old girl ‘killed by stranger while approaching her mother in the park’

A seven-year-old girl was killed by a stranger who cut her throat with a craft knife while riding his scooter in a park, according to a murder trial.

Emily Jones was calling her mother when a woman got up from a bench and killed her, a jury was told.

Her father Mark Jones had taken her to Queen’s Park in Bolton on Mother’s Day Sunday afternoon earlier this year.

His mother Sarah Barnes was also in the park jogging at the time, a jury was told at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester.

Michael Brady QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said: ‘Also in the park was Eltiona Skana.

“ She was alone on a bench armed with a craft knife, which she had taken from a pack of three that she had bought earlier that day from a shop in downtown Bolton.

Emily, oblivious to the accused, had seen her mother run in the distance and was heading towards her, a few meters ahead of her father.

As she moved on, she was heard calling her mother, who couldn’t hear her due to the distance between them and the fact that Ms. Barnes had her headphones on.

Emily’s path to her mother led her past the defendant who, when Emily slipped in, grabbed her and in one motion cut her throat with the knife and then threw her to the ground.

‘There was no interaction between Emily and the defendant.

The wound was insurmountable and Emily died shortly after.

After pushing Emily to the ground, the accused ran away.

Skana yelled, “He tried to kill me” while stabbing the girl, a jury heard.

Before the attack, witness Ian Robinson had noticed a woman, matching Skana’s description, who was sitting cross-legged next to a bench in the park.

Brady said: ‘His attention was focused on her because of what he described as her agitated demeanor. He noticed that she had an absent look on her face and didn’t appear with her and didn’t seem to fit in with her surroundings. ‘

Skana, 30, originally from Albania, will appear at the hearing via video link from Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 22, on diminished liability grounds, a partial defense for murder.

Brady said that although it is accepted that the defendant has and has had mental health difficulties for several years, it is the jury that must decide whether it is a case of murder rather than manslaughter.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check out our news page.