Schizophrenic Albanian woman stabbed girl, seven, to death at random in park as she tried to catch up with her mother, court hears

A schizophrenic woman screamed ‘she tried to kill me’ as she murdered a seven-year-old girl by slashing her throat in front of her horrified parents in a random attack on Mother’s Day, a court heard today. 

Eltiona Skana, 30, is accused of murdering Emily Jones with a craft knife as she played on her scooter at Queen’s Park in Bolton while her father, Mark Jones, and mother, Sarah Barnes, stood nearby. 

Skana, who is originally from Albania but has been living in the UK since 2014, was sat on bench and armed with a knife which was one of a pack of three she’d bought earlier that day from a shop in Bolton town centre, Manchester Crown Court heard. 

Emily was scooting to catch up with her jogging mother when she passed Skana, who stood up and slit her throat in one movement before throwing her to the ground, jurors heard. 

Eltiona Skana, 30, is accused of murdering Emily Jones (pictured) after slashing her neck with a craft knife while she played on her scooter 

Prior to the attack, which happened around 2.15pm, a woman – believed to be Skana – had been spotted in the park by a witness who described her as as looking ‘agitated’ and a with ‘vacant’ look on her face.

Michael Brady QC, prosecuting, told the court that although Emily’s mother was no longer in a relationship with her father she’d gone for a run in the park and had arranged to meet both of them there.

Emily, who’d been doing ‘laps’ on her scooter, spotted her mother in the distance.

She told her father, ‘Daddy, daddy. I want to go to mum’ and she’d scooted off.

Emily also called out to her mother, who didn’t hear her due to distance between them and the fact she was hearing headphones.

Mr Brady said: ‘Emily’s path towards her mum took her past the defendant who, as Emily scooted by, grabbed her and in one movement slit her throat with the craft knife and then threw her to the ground.

‘There had been no interaction between Emily and the defendant. The wound was unsurvivable and Emily died shortly after.’

Skana ran off still armed with the knife but at some point placed it in her backpack, where it was later recovered.

Mr Brady said a passer-by, Tony Canty, who been out for a walk with his wife and daughter witnessed Skana ‘manhandling’ and ‘screaming’ at Emily and pushing her to the ground.

Skana screamed: ‘She tried to kill me.’

She then repeated it as she ran past Mr Canty.

At that stage, Mr Canty ‘had no idea how serous the situation was, he hadn’t seen a knife and didn’t realise that Emily had been fatally wounded,’ Mr Brady said.

But he was ‘sufficiently’ concerned to run after Skana, with his wife shouting after him that she had a knife.

He briefly lost sight of Skana but soon caught up with her and either ‘barged or pushed’ her to the ground.

Skana fell on to her back and Mr Canty was able to detain her until the police arrived.

Mr Brady said that as Mr Canty sat on top Skana she started rambling about the ‘Home Office, her family and that he had killed ‘the girl.’

When Mr Canty telephoned and told them that a young girl had been involved, Skana responded: ‘I’m a girl, I’m a child.’

Emily had visited Queen’s Park in Bolton (pictured, police at the park after the killing) with her father Mark Jones and mother Sarah Barnes on March 22, this year

Mr Brady told the court that Emily’s father had seen a person on the bench standing over his daughter but he’d assumed Emily had fallen off her scooter and was being helped up.

But he’d then heard a woman shout: ‘She’s been stabbed’.

Mr Jones saw the defendant run off in ‘awkward manner’ with something ‘dark and quite long’ in her hand.

He went to Emily and saw she was bleeding from the neck and tried to comfort her, Mr Brady said.

She hadn’t moved or said anything and a member of the public handed him his shirt to try and stem the flow of blood from Emily’s neck.

A woman, believed to be a trained nurse, took over first aid and by this stage Mr Jones was ‘frantic’.

Emily’s ‘inconsolable’ mother then arrived and they witnessed paramedics who been called to scene battle to try to save Emily.

But Emily had suffered a cardiac arrested and was airlifted to Salford Royal hospital, where was pronounced dead shortly before 4pm.

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

Mr Brady said: ‘His attention was drawn to her because he what he described as he agitated demeanour. He noticed that she had a vacant look on her face and did not appear with it and did not seem to fit into her surroundings.’

Another witness, Hassan Ahmed, who’d seen the attack, described seeing the defendant lying on the bench before standing up, putting her hood up and grabbing Emily from behind.

He’d seen Skana’s arm ‘cut Emily’s throat’ with what he assumed was a knife.

‘It all happened so quickly that Emily didn’t have time to react,’ Mr Brady said.

Floral and cuddly toy tributes to the seven-year-old girl. Following her death, Emily’s parents paid tribute to her, describing their only child as the ‘light of our lives’

Mr Amhed then saw Emily ‘hold her throat’ and the defendant push her to the ground before running off.

In a statement read to the jury, Emily’s father said: ‘I do not know why this happened. Emily was simply riding her scooter to her mum. I simply can’t explain it.’

After her arrest, Skana was assessed, telling the on-call psychiatrist, ‘I know I’m a paranoid schizophrenic’ and she was detained under the Mental Health Act.

Skana was moved to the high-security hospital at Rampton where she told a psychiatrist, Dr Afghan, she had been ‘psychotic, hearing and seeing things’.

While there she may have had a possibly psychotic episode and another time it was reported while watching a children’s TV programme she began laughing hysterically when she saw a child who looked similar to Emily.

Skana said she was ‘perfectly normal’ before coming to the UK and claiming asylum in 2014, she told medics.

The jury was also told she showed ‘indifference’ to the killing and spoke with a ‘smirk’ but also showed appropriate emotional response when talking about her own family.

Speaking to a nurse at Rampton, Skana said: ‘Like I said, it’s been three months, what do you want me to do cry all the time?’.

She later told the same nurse: ‘It was premediated, I waited in a park and picked my victim, I did what I did, then tried to run away ‘.

Mr Brady told jurors the main issue was whether Skana’s paranoid schizophrenia is the reason behind the killing of Emily or her illness is simply ‘a convenient excuse behind which to hide?’

She had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 22, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, a partial defence to murder.