The woman who killed seven-year-old Emily Jones in a Bolton park on Mother’s Day has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of eight years.
Eltiona Skana, a 30-year-old with paranoid schizophrenia and a long history of mental illness, will serve her sentence in a high-security hospital.
On 22 March, Skana got up from a bench and randomly attacked Emily with a craft knife as she rode past on a scooter, calling to her mother who was jogging around Queen’s Park.
Minshull Street crown court heard that at the time, the defendant had not been taking her anti-psychotic medication.
Skana admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but a trial for murder collapsed last week after the prosecution offered no further evidence.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Wall ordered that Skana serve her sentence at Rampton hospital, where she is currently being treated. She will be subject to restrictions under the Mental Health Act and only be released if she no longer poses a threat to the public.
“The facts of this case are chilling,” he said. “The background to the killing is your enduring mental health condition.”
He added that despite her mental illness, Skana retained “a significant amount of responsibility” which merited punishment in the form of a “hybrid” order, meaning she will go to prison for the remainder of her sentence if her condition improves sufficiently.
Before the sentencing, Michael Brady QC read a victim impact statement by Emily’s father, Mark Jones, 49. It read: “How can you put into words how you feel about the senseless death of your only child?
“Emily was the beat in our hearts, the spring in our steps, and the reason we got up every morning.”
On Mother’s Day this year, Emily had been taken to the park by her father, where she spotted her mother, solicitor Sarah Barnes, 42, who was jogging.
The court heard that she had said “Daddy, I want to go to Mum” and scooted off. As she did, she passed Skana, who was armed with a knife bought earlier that day.
The defendant stood up, pulled her hood up and grabbed the girl, cutting her throat before running away, but was tackled to the ground nearby by a member of the public, Tony Canty.
Emily was taken by air ambulance to Salford Royal hospital but went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 3.56pm with her mother at her bedside.
• This article was amended on 9 December 2020. Text referring to Skana’s mental illness was edited in line with the Guardian’s reporting guidelines, and the byline was updated to reflect the fact that a news agency supplied a significant portion of the article text.
