Emily Jones murder: Woman who fatally slit 7-year-old's throat was not taking her anti-psychotic medication
A woman who allegedly fatally stabbed a seven-year-old girl in a park on Mother’s Day reportedly stopped taking her anti-psychotic medication, a court was told on November 27. Emily Jones was riding her scooter in Queen's Park in Bolton earlier this year when the accused, identified as Eltiona Skana, got up from a bench and stabbed the girl in the neck, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard. The girl went to the park in March with her father Mark Jones to enjoy “the spring sun" and when she passed a park bench after spotting her mother Sarah Barns, the 30-year-old woman brutally attacked her. Emily was rushed to a nearby Salford Royal Hospital, but she died a short time later despite the "best efforts" of the doctors. At the time, Acting Senior Coroner Alan Walsh called the murder "one of the most tragic".
“In my 20 years as a coroner this is one of the most tragic deaths that I have dealt with and the loss of a beautiful, innocent, lively, intelligent, and lovely seven-year-old in these circumstances is an unimaginable tragedy. I appreciate that Emily's parents are beyond devastated and my sincere thoughts are with them at this enormously sad time,” Walsh noted.
The Sun reported that Skana, who is originally from Albania, confessed to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, however, she denied murder in the incident that happened on March 22. Michael Brady QC, prosecuting, cast doubt on the claims as he said the suspected murderer’s paranoid schizophrenia is the reason behind the incident or "a convenient excuse behind which to hide?". Skana received treatment at a medium secure mental health in Manchester by Dr Victoria Sullivan after her arrest. The doctor said the accused’s sister Klestora came "distressed” at the facility. “She told us Miss Skana had been missing days in her medication. She had had mental health difficulties for a number of years, she intermittently did not take her medication and had been a risk to other people,” Sullivan recalled, adding: “I suspected she had either not been taking medication in the community or it had for some reason stopped working."
The court also heard that the woman came to the UK in 2014 and for the last three years, she had been taking monthly injections of anti-psychotic drugs. But reports stated that Skana told the medical professionals that the injections did not help her much, instead, they deteriorated her condition. She told Dr Sullivan that in mid-2019, she started taking anti-psychotic medication orally rather than the injections and they made her feel less paranoid.
Another doctor, Dr Suhanthini Farrell, monitored the suspect along with a team of five medics. Skana told the medics, “I know I'm a paranoid schizophrenic." Dr Farrell described the defendant as "clean, well kempt," who maintained fixed, staring eye contact and was "guarded and suspicious" with a "tone of hostility and increasing irritability". While Dr Farrell stated, “It did feel she was thinking carefully about the answers she was giving, rather than responding intuitively, naturally. She was composing her answers, then giving it. My impression was there was active psychotic symptoms. The symptoms were subtle. Objectively she did appear to be paranoid."
The trial in the case began on Thursday, November 26, and is expected to continue for five days.