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This is the moment when a woman sitting calmly on a park bench after slitting a seven-year-old girl’s throat in front of her parents is arrested by the police.
The paranoid schizophrenic randomly attacked the schoolgirl as she was riding a scooter and yelled, “Mom! Mummy! “To his mother running through Queen’s Park, Bolton, on March 22nd.
In body-worn camera footage, she tells police they will find a knife, a bottle of water, some juice and her ID in her purse while she is locked in the back of the van.
Skana had a long history of mental illness and had not been taking her antipsychotic medication, it was learned at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester.
The trial failed last week and the prosecution offered no further evidence after hearing evidence from the psychiatrist treating Skana at the high-security Rampton Hospital.
She appeared on the dock to sentence surrounded by hospital staff.
Emily Jones was only 7 years old when she was randomly attacked while playing on her scooter
/ Pennsylvania )In sentencing, Judge Wall ordered Skana to serve her sentence at Rampton Hospital and will be subject to restrictions under the Mental Health Act, and will only be released if she no longer poses a risk to the public.
He told the defendant: “The facts of this case are chilling.
“The background to the murder is his enduring mental health condition.”
He said that despite her mental illness, Skana retained “a significant amount of responsibility” that she deserved to be punished by passing not a hospital order but a “hybrid” order, meaning that the defendant will go to prison for the remainder of her life. eight-year sentence. if your condition improves enough.
Emily had been taken to the park by her father Mark Jones, 49, on Mother’s Day Sunday afternoon earlier this year, and was on her scooter when she saw her mother, attorney Sarah Barnes, 42 years, he was jogging.
Emily said “Dad, Dad, I want to go with Mom” and walked away.
As he did so, he passed Skana, alone on a bench armed with a knife bought earlier that day.
Skana stood up, pulled up her hood and grabbed the girl, slitting her throat before fleeing, but was knocked to the ground nearby by a member of the public, Tony Canty.
Mr. Jones cradled his dying daughter and said, “Stay with me Emily, stay with me. Don’t leave me, ”he told the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
The girl was taken by air ambulance to the Royal Salford Hospital, but Emily had suffered cardiac arrest and, with her mother by her bed, was pronounced dead at 3.56 p.m.
Emily Jones’ father asked the court: “How can you kill an innocent child who plays in a park in such a violent and monstrous way?”
/ Pennsylvania )Jones has criticized Skana’s mental health care.
His victim impact statement was read in court prior to sentencing.
He said: “Emily was the beat of our hearts, the spring of our steps and the reason we got up every morning.
“Emily was our beautiful and lively girl. An energy pack with a contagious personality.
“Emily loved life and didn’t care about anything in the world.
“A smile from Emily and she had her dad wrapped around her little finger.
“How can you kill an innocent child who plays in a park in such a violent and monstrous way?”
The trial heard that the defendant, who first came to the UK from her native Albania in 2014 after applying for asylum, had a long history of mental illness.
She had not been taking her antipsychotic medications and had only been seen once by her mental health nurse in the three months prior to the murder.
Skana was detained under the Mental Health Act after her arrest.
Eltiona Skana, 30, got up from a bench and randomly attacked Emily Jones as she passed by calling for her mother.
/ Pennsylvania )He later told a nurse in Rampton: “It was premeditated, I waited in a park and picked up my victim, did what I did and then tried to escape.”
Prosecutors claimed that this showed that the murder was planned and therefore amounted to murder.
But it later emerged that Skana made the comment after her antipsychotic drug treatment was taken away and the prosecution dropped the murder charge.
Judge Wall asked the level of “residual liability” despite Skana’s illness, because he appeared to be aware of her actions, had bought the knife, and had run away after the attack.
And she questioned why she had also hidden the fact that she was not taking her medication from her health workers.
Mitigating Simon Csoka QC cited expert psychiatric evidence suggesting that concealment and non-adherence to medication was often part of the illness of paranoid schizophrenics.
He said: “We hold all the evidence, including the psychiatric evidence heard at trial, that the driver of this crime is the mental illness of the defendant.”
Psychiatrist Dr. Helen Whitworth told the hearing: “Actually, I don’t think it was a deliberate hoax. This was a woman who did not understand that she was mentally ill.
“In my opinion, Miss Skana needs to receive therapeutic medication at all times, probably for the rest of her life.”
Senior Investigative Officer Duncan Thorpe, Greater Manchester Police, said: “This was an absolutely devastating incident that left Emily’s parents and family completely heartbroken and I know it sent shockwaves across the country as everyone lamented. the loss of this innocent child.
“Emily was separated from her family and friends in the worst possible way.”
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for Skana’s care, has said a review found that Emily’s murder could not have been foreseen.
Skana was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2015 and had been sectioned and treated as an inpatient twice in the hospital.
On one occasion he had picked up a knife after claiming that neighbors wanted to harm him, and on another, he stabbed his mother in the hand.
Skana initially received injections of antipsychotic medications, but switched to taking them orally through pills while under the care of the community mental health team.
A nurse who visited her on March 11 told the court that she did not detect any psychotic symptoms.
Additional reports from PA media
